I Thought Love Was Only True In Fairytales
by Jadeey
Summary: They are attracted to each other but that doesn't mean actually ending up together is going to be easy. HouseCameron
1. Chapter 1

_Hi everyone. This is a little idea that came to me randomly earlier today so I decided to write it. I hope I kept everyone pretty in-character. It hints at House/Cameron and that is probably where I will end up if I continue with it, although I haven't fully decided anything. As I said in the summary, I might just leave it as a one-shot. I have some ideas as to where I could take it but I'm not sure I actually have the motivation to follow through with it._

_But please, enjoy!_

I Thought Love Was Only True In Fairytales 

The insistent ringing of the telephone woke Allison Cameron from a weird dream that involved talking mice sailing little boats. She squinted at her bedside clock and saw that it was 2.59am. The ringing stopped and the silence was almost deafening. The last remnants of her dream faded as the phone began to ring again. Slight adrenalin coursed through her body is she struggled to think who could possibly be calling her at this time, and what disaster must have occurred to involve a three am phone call. She snatched up the phone before it stopped ringing again, fully awake by now but voice still scratchy with sleep.

"Hello?"

"Want to go for a drive?" Came the voice on the other end of the phone. Cameron was silent for a moment as she tried to figure out who the familiar voice belonged to and why on earth it was asking her to go for a drive as though that was a completely normal thing to do in the middle of the night. For a brief second she wondered if she had overslept by a ridiculous amount and the time was actually three in the afternoon rather than three in the morning.

The voice at the end of the phone had become bored with her silence. "Well? Do you?

"House?" Cameron asked, suddenly placing the voice. Although, that didn't stop a million other bewildered thoughts from entering her mind.

"Yes. So do you want to go for a drive or not?" House sounded impatient now and Cameron started to think maybe this was all a dream. Either that or a parallel universe.

"Now? I'm sleeping." She replied.

"Is that a no?" She could practically picture him about to put the phone down. That image made her speak again, she wasn't willing to let this chance go whether it was a dream or not.

"No, you just took me by surprise."

"So it's a yes?"

"Yes, it's a yes."

"Good. I'm waiting downstairs." A brief pause then "it's cold out, put on something warm." The phone went dead as this time he did hang up. Cameron was still confused but was willing to go along with this, whatever this was. She got out of bed and pulled on the jeans and sweatshirt she'd been wearing earlier that day. Thinking about the last thing House had said, she added a jacket as well. She glanced in the mirror as she slipped on her shoes and saw that her hair was more than a little tousled from sleep. Quickly she went into the bathroom to run a brush through it, and then decided to take the extra minute to clean her teeth as well. No point scaring House off with dragon breath.

She walked to the door and wondered, even as she was opening it, if he would actually be there or it this was some elaborate joke that she was suddenly falling for. But as she walked out the door she saw him, casually leaning against his motorbike, two helmets in his hands. A quick glance at the sky confirmed that it was still very much night-time and the slight chill that ran up her body confirmed that she was definitely awake. What she still hadn't figured out was what Gregory House was doing at her house in the middle of the night wanting to go for a drive.

House silently handed her a helmet, he hadn't even bothered to say hello and she had been to busy trying to work out what was going on to say anything. He pulled his own helmet on and got on the bike. Cameron shrugged her shoulders, she had come this far she may as well keep on going. Besides, she wasn't willing to miss the opportunity to sit snuggled up behind him on his bike. She got on and slipped her arms around him, breathing in the scent of his leather jacket.

Without a word House took off and they were sailing through the near-empty streets. He seemed to know exactly where he was going and drove slightly above the speed limit the whole time. Cameron decided to just settle back and enjoy the ride, she doubted she would ever get a chance like this again. She wasn't going to screw it up like she screwed up their date by asking stupid questions. No, this time she would play it cool. No matter what happened.

House started to slow the bike down as they reached their destination. They had been riding for about two hours, Cameron estimated. She wasn't exactly sure where they were, it seemed to be a lookout point of some kind, and it was completely deserted. A thought flashed through Cameron's head that maybe House had brought her here to kill her, then she pushed that thought away with amusement. She may not be able to figure the guy out but she knew he wasn't a killer.

They pulled to a stop and Cameron dismounted, pulling off her helmet. House pulled off his helmet too and popped a vicodin into his mouth before getting off the bike. Cameron looked around her, it really was a beautiful spot and she could just see the beginnings of the sunrise. She turned to look back at House who was watching her with incredibly piercing blue eyes.

"It's beautiful" she said, wanting to ask why they were here but hesitant to scare away whatever it was she could see in those, usually guarded, blue eyes.

"Yes it is." He said simply. She felt a thrill of excitement go through her as she understood his veiled compliment, he hadn't taken his eyes off her.

"Um…" she was at a loss as to what to say next. He took the problem away from her by walking over to her and taking her hand. Her breathing hitched and she decided she must have been wrong before, this was definitely a dream. A dream, she really didn't want to wake up from.

House led her over to a bench and they sat down.

"I thought we could watch the sunrise" he said, not sounding like this was anything at all out of the ordinary. A brief silence descended upon them as Cameron couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't potentially scare him off and House seemed to have nothing left to say. Her hand was still clutched in his and he was gently rubbing his thumb in circles on the back of it.

Cameron could bear it no longer and was about to blurt out a question as to why they were here and why he was holding her hand when yesterday at work nothing had been different. If anything he had been worse at work yesterday, snide and mean, he hadn't even cared that Foreman had stolen her article. She knew she shouldn't even be sitting here with him, she shouldn't let him do this to her because she was the only one who was going to get hurt. Despite what Wilson had said to her before that disastrous date she had bribed House into, she knew that when it came to House she was the one who was going to get hurt.

House saved her from ruining the moment by suddenly starting to speak again. He began talking about his parents and his childhood. Then moved on to his relationship with Stacy. He told her how good it had been before his infarction, fiery and full of passion. How it had all gone wrong after the infarction but how, if he was honest with himself, it would have burned out on its own anyway. There was only so far sex and passion could get you. He told her what had happened since Stacy had arrived back, telling her everything from the kiss they'd shared in the hotel room, to the sex, to her leaving Mark for him and him sending her away.

He talked until he seemed to have no words left. He'd stared straight ahead the whole time, never looking at her, but his thumb had continued to trace circles on her hand. He hadn't shared his feelings, had spoken most of the time as though he were listing symptoms about a patient, not talking about his own life. Despite that, Cameron felt as though he had bared his entire soul to her. She now knew more about the anomaly that was Gregory House than she had ever imagined she would actually know.

Suddenly he seemed to snap back to reality and pulled his hand out of hers. She ached at the loss of contact but was not really surprised. He glanced at his watch.

"It's 7am, we better get back." He said, already standing up and pulling his helmet back on.

Cameron nodded and glanced once more into the distance where they had just watched the sunrise, committing everything about this weird morning to memory. She pulled her helmet on and got on the bike behind House, once more wrapping her arms around his waist. They were going to be late for work, but somehow she found herself not caring.

The ride back was silent, the bike didn't really allow for talking, but even if it had Cameron assumed there would have been silence. She had no response to everything House had told her this morning, she didn't even know why he had told her so much. She didn't know what she could have possibly said to him and was quite relieved that he'd said they should go straight after he had finished talking. For all that he assumed she always wanted to talk about her feelings, she really wasn't very good at it. Actually, the demand she had made to him that he tell her how he felt about her probably already proved that.

Two hours later they arrived back at Cameron's apartment. She got off the bike and handed the helmet to House who put it on the back and immediately took off. Cameron watched him drive away then turned and went inside.

_mdmdmdmd_

It didn't take her long to get ready for work and soon she was in her car on her way to the hospital. She parked in the underground garage and made her way up to the diagnostics department, hoping like crazy she wouldn't run into Cuddy on the way.

She managed to make it in without being spotted and put her stuff down at her desk. A quick glance into House's office showed that he hadn't arrived yet. Chase and Foreman chose that moment to walk into the room.

"Where have you been? It's ten o'clock." Chase said in amazement, Cameron was never late. Foreman just looked at her, probably assuming she had been sulking about their little discussion yesterday.

"Um. What? Oh. I overslept." Cameron said lamely, berating herself for not at least coming up with a plausible lie. However, Chase seemed to accept this explanation easily. Cameron's cynical side kicked in, reminding her of what Foreman had said to her the day before, they weren't friends. She assumed this probably applied to Chase as well and the reason he was so readily accepting of her pathetically presented lie was because he didn't actually care about the answer.

Foreman chose that moment to speak up. "We have a new patient." He said. "House isn't here yet, surprise surprise, but I think we should start going over the symptoms." He walked over to the whiteboard and started listing symptoms.

"How can we have a new patient if House isn't in yet?" Cameron asked.

"Because this patient needs a diagnosis and needs it now. Foreman replied without turning back from the whiteboard.

Cameron looked at the symptoms listed on the whiteboard. Fever, Diarrhoea and lethargy. She was about to start suggesting possible causes when the door opened and House walked in. He raised an eyebrow when he saw the three of them clustered around the whiteboard.

"What, you started the party without me? I'm hurt." He said.

"Well when you're an hour and a half late what do you expect?" Chase spoke up, surprising both Cameron and House. Usually Foreman was the first one to stand up to House, not Chase.

"Touché. Though I struggle to see how a patient could get admitted before I arrive, whether I arrive on time or late, being that I am the only one with the authority to admit a patient to this department." House replied.

"Look, can we just diagnose the patient? She's sick and she really needs our help. You can argue semantics later." Foreman sounded thoroughly exasperated.

"Well technically it's not semantics." House began, then shrugged. "Okay."

Foreman looked stunned for a moment. "Okay?"

"Okay, lets diagnose the patient." House seemed to have already moved on and was staring at the whiteboard in thought. "Addison's, colon cancer, diabetes, gastroenteritus…" he began listing possibilities.

Foreman had now been distracted from the diagnosis of the patient and wanted to know why House had given in so easily. To do so without a fight was very out of character unless the patient presented with a very odd set of symptoms. This patient's, Kathy Simmons, symptoms weren't strange enough to have caught House's interest so easily.

"No fight?" Foreman asked.

House glanced away from the whiteboard to Foreman and shrugged. "You got lucky, I'm in a good mood."

Chase smirked. "Or was it you that got lucky?"

House gave a fake laugh. "You got me, I had a bunch of hookers over last night and we partied all night long. Now can we get on with this?" He turned back to the whiteboard.

Cameron smiled to herself, knowing where he had been for half the night and hoping that, just maybe, their morning excursion had something to do with his good mood. Her focus then shifted and she began to think about the patient.

"Addison's wouldn't generally present with a fever. Gastroenteritus is possible, but it could easily be a hundred other things." She said.

"Right. We need to get some tests and find some more symptoms. Cameron's right, we need more information." House nodded and turned towards the team. "Chase, take bloods. Cameron, get a more detailed history. And Foreman," House paused in thought, "schedule an MRI."

"An MRI, is that really necessary right now?" Foreman asked.

"We need to start ruling stuff out and we need to find more symptoms. The MRI could help us with both of those." House stated and walked into his office confident that his orders would be fulfilled.

_mdmdmdmdmd_

Two hours and a dozen levels of Gripshift on the PSP later the team was back in the conference room. They had a couple of new symptoms to add to the board.

"The MRI came back clear" Foreman reported.

Cameron went next. "She's been experiencing night-sweats for the past week."

"And she didn't tell anyone this in the initial exam?" House asked in disbelief as he wrote it up on the board.

Cameron continued "her speech seems disorganised. When I asked her about her what her mother died from she started telling me about the night sweats."

"Maybe she's having nightmares about her mother's death?" Foreman suggested.

"I doubt it, her mother died seven years ago. Why would they start now? Besides, when I asked her about the night sweats she told me she had toast for breakfast." Cameron said.

House added 'disorganised speech' to the list of symptoms that was now building up on the board.

"Her white blood cells are elevated and her red blood cell count is low." Chase said, taking his turn to reveal what he had found over the past couple of hours.

"Well, the low red cell count is probably attributed to the diarrhoea." House said. He added it to the board next to diarrhoea. "Anything else?"

The three junior members of the team shook their heads.

"Well we wanted more symptoms and now we've got 'em" House said. "But what do they add up to?"

Everyone looked silently at the whiteboard.

"Addison's is unlikely." Chase said. House nodded and put a line through it.

"What about Crohn's disease?" Cameron suggested.

"No signs of abdominal pain." Foreman argued. "Besides, since when has disorganised speech been a symptom of Crohn's?

Cameron looked annoyed. "Disorganised speech doesn't fit with anything I can think of that would account for the diarroea, elevated white count and night sweats."

"What does that mean?" House pondered out loud, swinging his cane back and forth and staring up at the ceiling. "Either it's something we haven't thought of or the disorganised speech is unrelated."

"Her husband's was there when I was taking the history" Cameron said "he seemed surprised by her responses. I don't think the disorganised speech is normal for her."

"Did you actually ask him if it was normal?" House asked.

A guilty look came over Cameron's face. "Well. No"

"Go and ask" House commanded. Cameron scurried out of the room feeling relieved she hadn't been ridiculed for making such an obvious oversight, House clearly was in a good mood.

As she went to find the husband the rest of the team continued to toss around ideas. A dozen possibilities were rejected and a half dozen more were suggested as likely. Cameron arrived back in the room and confirmed that the disorganised speech was a new symptom, Kathy hadn't exhibited it before to her husbands knowledge."

House frowned then crossed off every possibility they had written on the whiteboard.

"Well, Cameron was right, disorganised speech doesn't fit with any of those possibilities. Which leaves us with precisely nothing." He tapped the pen against the whiteboard in frustration.

A long silence stretched out as all four of them tried in vain to think of something that could account for all the symptoms.

House was the first to break the silence. "If we ignore the disorganised speech we've got possibilities. Let's start testing for some of those."

"We can't just ignore a symptom because it suits us!" Foreman exclaimed.

"Do you have a better suggestion of what it could be? Because I've got nothing." House looked frustrated.

"No. There's nothing I can think of either. But it has to be related, it's too big a coincidence that it came on at the same time." Foreman argued.

"Well you're the neurologist." House said. "What could disorganised speech be a symptom of?"

Foreman thought for a moment. "A stroke or severe head trauma." He began.

"Neither of which she's had." Chase interrupted.

"A brain tumor, schizophrenia?" Foreman suggested.

"Unlikely, neither fit with the other symptoms." Cameron said.

"Which leads us right back to nothing. Or we can ignore the disorganised speech for now." House said.

This time Foreman nodded his consent. It was the best they could do at this point in time.

"Good. But, even without the disorganised speech we don't have anything that fits with all the symptoms." House began, surveying the whiteboard. "The elevated white count could be attributed to low blood pressure though. So, ignoring both the elevated white count and disorganised speech what do we have?"

"Sarcoidosis." Cameron said.

House nodded. "No cough but that doesn't necessarily rule it out. The rash could be hiding from us, we'll need to do another full physical. What else? What is the most likely?"

He put a tick next to Sarcoidosis, which had been written up earlier then crossed out because it didn't fit with all the symptoms.

"Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma." Chase suggested and House ticked it.

"Or it could be Hodgkin's." House added, ticking that option too.

"It could just be the flu" Foreman said after a moment.

House wrote it up on the board. "Simple but it does fit. Anything else?"

Chase, Cameron and Foreman shook their heads.

"Right, Chase, Foreman go and do another physical. Find us a rash or a swollen lymph node." House gave his orders and the two left the room.

Cameron stood awkwardly wondering what she was supposed to do as House started to limp towards his office. Did he want her to follow him? Did he want to talk about what had happened that morning? She made a decision and started to follow. The sound of her movement alerted him to her presence and he turned around in surprise, he hadn't actually realised he hadn't assigned her something to do.

"Cameron." He said. He was about to find some menial job for her to do while they waited when Wilson arrived, interrupting him.

"Where did you get to this morning?" Wilson asked, curiosity in his voice. "You weren't there when I got up, but you weren't here when I arrived."

"Sorry dear. Did you miss me?" House replied sarcastically.

Wilson rolled his eyes. "Desperately. So where were you."

House shrugged. "Couldn't sleep so I went for a ride." He paused then glanced at Cameron. "Dr Cameron I'm starving, grab me a sandwich from the cafeteria."

"What, no please?" She asked, noticing he also hadn't passed her any money.

"People don't have to say please to their slaves, oh sorry I mean employees." House smirked.

Cameron gave a half smile and left the room.

"I'm moving out. I've found an apartment." Wilson announced.

House had just sat down at his desk and now looked up in shock at Wilson.

"Oh, right. Good. It'll be nice to get my place back to myself. Hookers every night and all that." House couldn't quite hide his disappointment that Wilson was leaving.

Wilson was preoccupied with something and didn't notice though. He gave a nod and turned to leave. "I'll move my stuff out tonight." He was gone before House even had a chance to respond.

House sighed and stared up at the ceiling in thought. He was still sitting like that when Cameron returned a few minutes later with his sandwich. She handed it to him silently then sat down and unwrapped her own. She was tensed up waiting for him to say something about the fact that she had just sat down to eat with him. She didn't have to wait long.

"Make yourself at home" was shot at her sarcastically.

"I will." Cameron said pretending she hadn't noticed that he was being sarcastic.

House ate his sandwich silently, in fear that she was going to start trying to talk about that morning and everything he had told her. He didn't even know why he had shared so much with her. When he had got on his bike that morning he had been intending to go for a ride on his own. He somehow ended up at her place and knew that she would go with him so he called her. It had not been planned and he had been as surprised about the whole thing as she had been. And why he had started telling her about his life, he had absolutely no explanation for that whatsoever.

The minutes ticked by and Cameron didn't say a word. Gradually the silence between them got more comfortable as House relaxed and became confident that she wasn't going to bring it up.

"So, Foreman and I aren't friends." Cameron blurted out suddenly.

House stared at her in confusion. At least she wasn't talking about that morning but what on earth was she talking about?

"What?" He asked.

"Foreman. He told me yesterday that we are just colleagues, not friends." Cameron clarified, wondering to herself why she had suddenly blurted that out. She had been so busy trying not to say anything about that morning that she had just said the first thing that popped into her head.

"And you thought you were friends." It was a statement not a question.

"Well. Yes. I apologised to him for overreacting about him stealing my article." Cameron began.

"Wait. How come you apologised to him? You didn't apologise to me." House said.

"I don't need to apologise to you. You don't care." Cameron said.

House nodded his assent at the truth of that statement, he really didn't care.

"After I apologised I told him I didn't want it to get in the way of our friendship and he said we aren't friends." Cameron continued.

"Telling daddy on me are you?" Foreman and Chase had just entered the room to hear the tail end of their conversation.

House stood up. "I'm not daddy, I'm teacher. So what did you find out?"

The three of them headed into the conference room as Chase filled them in on what they had found out.

"No swollen lymph nodes but we did find a rash. Her husband claims it's a reaction to some stinging nettle." Chase told them.

House limped over to the board and wrote up rash then circled sarcoidosis. "Unlikely she'd have yet another symptom that is unrelated. It's sarcoidosis."

The whole team was in agreement about this diagnosis.

"Great. It's mild so she shouldn't need treatment. Release her and schedule her for a follow-up next week." House checked his watch. "I'm going home."

"It's not even three o'clock." Foreman exclaimed.

"Lucky you're not my boss anymore then isn't it?" House said as he put on his jacket.

_mdmdmdmd_

Later that night House was sitting at his piano, playing 'Hymn to Freedom' by Oscar Peterson. It was one of his favourites and always soothed him. As usual, he was thinking about the day and going over the case in his head. Suddenly he stopped playing as a horrible thought occurred to him. He snatched up the phone and dialled a number.

"Hello?" Cameron's voice said as she answered the phone.

"What did the patient say when you asked her whether or not she had been experiencing abdominal pain?" He asked, not bothering with idle chitchat.

"She said no." Cameron sounded as though she had just woken up, which wasn't really surprising considering the time she'd been up that morning.

"I know she said no. I want to know exactly what she said." House insisted.

"I don't remember. Can't this wait until tomorrow?" Cameron asked.

"No, it's important to her diagnosis. Think. What exactly did she say?"

"Her diagnosis? We know what she's got. It's sarcoidosis." Cameron was desperate to get back to sleep.

"What if it's not? C'mon Cameron. Tell me what she said and I'll let you go back to sleep." House was getting irritated now. He couldn't believe he had missed something so obvious.

"Um. Ok, let me think. She said no. Then she said her period's not due for another two weeks." Cameron replied after a moment.

"And you took that as a no she doesn't have abdominal pain?" House asked in disbelief.

"Well yeah. Funny that isn't it. She said no and I took that as a no." Cameron was getting exasperated. She wasn't in the mood for House's games.

"Cameron!" House practically yelled. "She didn't tell you she didn't have abdominal pains, she told you she didn't have her period!"

"House, you're a doctor. I would expect you to know that periods are often accompanied by cramps that can manifest themselves as abdominal pain. Which she said she didn't have." Cameron's irritation was almost as palpable as House's by now.

"Think, Cameron. We know she has disorganised speech. She could have been answering the question properly and very logically or she could have been going off on a tangent."

Cameron gasped slightly as she realised House was right and she cursed herself for overlooking that possibility.

"You suggested Crohn's as a possibility right?" House continued. "We rejected it because she didn't have abdominal pain."

"But if she wasn't answering my question then we don't know whether or not she's had abdominal pain." Cameron finished his sentence then groaned as the realisation set in. "Crohn's fits much better. It accounts for the elevated white count and low red count."

"There's still the rash. What did the husband say it was? Stinging nettle?" House asked.

"Yeah. Oh crap. We discharged her!" Cameron exclaimed.

"Even if we're right and it's Crohn's a few more hours isn't going to hurt her. Get some sleep now and we'll get her back in, in the morning. House said and hung up the phone.

At the other end of the phone Cameron looked at the receiver which was now just had a dial tone beeping in her ear. She sighed and hung up the phone. House was right, there wasn't anything they could do now that would get her any better than anything they could do in the morning. She closed her eyes and let sleep take her again,

_mdmdmdmd_

This time there was no 3am wake up call to rouse Cameron out of sleep. Her alarm went off at the usual time of 7.30am and she slowly got out of bed. At least it was Friday, as long as they sorted out Kathy Simmons, properly this time, and no other patients were admitted, she had two days of freedom to look forward to.

Just over an hour later Cameron was arriving at the hospital. She saw that House's bike was there, signifying he had already arrived. She walked through the front door and up to the diagnostics department. When she walked into the conference room she found House glaring at a coffee mug.

He turned as he heard her come through the door and she couldn't help smiling at the slightly perplexed expression on his face. She took the mug off him and set about making the coffee. While she did so House went and sat at the table, pulling Kathy's file towards him.

"She'll be here at nine-thirty" he said.

"Who will?" Asked Chase, who had just walked through the door with Foreman a few steps behind him.

"The patient" House began, then had to glance at the file to check what her name was. "Kathy Simmons."

"What's she coming back in for?" Foreman asked.

"We got it wrong. She has Crohn's." House said.

"No she doesn't. She has sarcoidosis." Foreman argued, more because he always argued at House than anything.

"Nope. She has had abdominal pain, that makes Crohn's much more likely." House stated.

"Since when? Yesterday she said she hadn't had abdominal pains." Foreman argued.

Cameron spoke up "I thought she said she hadn't had abdominal pains, but it might have been the disorganised speech. We need to ask her again. Crohn's fits better."

"What about the rash? That's classic sarcoidosis. Crohn's doesn't present with a rash." Foreman said.

"The husband said it was stinging nettle. Maybe we should believe him." House said as he took the mug of coffee Cameron handed him.

"What happened to 'Everybody lies'?" Foreman asked.

"Everybody does. But sometimes they tell the truth." House answered.

"And you guys just happened to figure all this out in the thirty seconds before we walked in?" Chase asked. When House and Cameron looked at him questioningly he shrugged and clarified "I saw Cameron getting out of her car just as I was pulling up."

"Oh you caught us. In between the hours of sex Cameron and I had last night we discussed the patient. A win-win situation really." House replied. He was not surprised to see the blush that crept up Cameron's face but was interested to note that Chase saw the blush and looked angry about it. He decided to rub salt into the wound.

"But don't worry Chase, it wasn't as special as when the two of you slept together. Cameron wasn't high this time." He smirked as Chase looked even more annoyed. He couldn't help the small bit of guilt he felt for making fun of Cameron at the same time and shot a slightly apologetic look at her. She acknowledged it with a small smile. He vaguely wondered where that guilty feeling had come from then pushed it aside.

House stood up and limped towards his office. "Come and get me when she arrives." As he stepped through the door he heard Chase explode at Cameron and smirked at the Australian's idiocy.

"You slept with House?" Chase demanded of Cameron.

"No! He was joking." Cameron said with a roll of her eyes.

"Then how did you both come to an agreement that she has Crohn's? You weren't here long enough before we arrived." Chase argued.

"Not that it's any of your business, but he rang me last night to ask exactly what she said when I asked her about the abdominal pains. He'd already figured it out, he just needed me to clarify what was said." Cameron told him, wondering why she was even bothering to explain.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." Chase said, slightly sheepishly.

Cameron just nodded, then sat down to do some paperwork while they waited for Kathy to arrive.

_mdmdmd_

At just after 9.30am all four of their pagers went off, notifying them their patient had arrived. House stuck his head around the door and called to Cameron.

"Cameron, come with me." He nodded to Chase and Foreman. "You guys keep doing whatever you're doing."

Cameron got up and followed House out the door and down to the patient's room. They walked into the room and Cameron greeted Kathy and her husband.

"Kathy, hi. Sorry for making you come back in. This is Dr House, he just wants to ask you a few more questions to make sure we got the diagnosis right." Cameron told Kathy,

"You think maybe you got it wrong?" The husband asked.

"It's quite possible. We ruled out certain things because of the lack of abdominal pain. We just need to check that when Kathy told us she wasn't having them she was answering the correct question. The disorganised speech she's suffering from might mean that she was talking about something different when she answered my question." Cameron explained.

The husband nodded his understanding. "Okay. But she hasn't complained of any pain to me."

House took his turn. "That doesn't mean she's not having them. It just means she hasn't told you." He turned to Kathy. "Have you had any pain in your abdomen in the past couple of weeks?"

Kathy nodded. "Yes. On and off for the past week."

The husband looked stunned. "But honey, why didn't you say anything?" He asked.

"We're having a dinner party next week." She answered him.

He glanced at House and Cameron in confusion, then back at his wife. "Dinner party? What dinner party?" He asked.

"Everyone's coming. Jay Leno, Oprah Winfrey, Rikki Lake, David Letterman. I'm good at spelling." Kathy replied.

Her husband just looked helplessly at her. Cameron took pity on him and explained to him that her responses were due to the disorganised speech.

"She thinks she is answering your questions. Her mind can't stay focused on one subject for more than a few seconds." Cameron told him.

"So how do you know if the abdominal pain is real?" The husband asked.

"We're going to assume it is for now." House replied. He turned to Kathy. "Kathy we suspect you have a disease called Crohn's disease. Crohn's is a disease of your intestines. There is no cure but if that's what it is, the disease can be managed. We will schedule you for a CT scan and a colonoscopy to confirm the diagnosis."

Kathy got an excited look on her face and clapped her hands. "Great! When do we start?"

Her husband looked distraught. "The disorganised speech again?" He asked.

Cameron and House exchanged a look.

"No." House told him. "That looked more like something called inappropriate affect, basically when a person exhibits the opposite reaction to what you would expect. Laughing at someone's funeral for example."

"Okay… So that's another symptom of this Crohn's disease?" The husband tried to clarify.

"No, but it is a symptom of schizophrenia. Has your wife been having orgasms?" House asked.

"What? Um, well no. She's been feeling too sick to have sex for the past month. The one time we did she stopped halfway through, said she was bored." The husband looked mortified admitting to this. "Usually she's really into it though!" He hurried to add.

House nodded sagely. "Lack of ability to experience pleasure is another symptom of schizophrenia. Once we've confirmed the diagnosis of Crohn's we'll get her a psyc referral."

"Could the Crohn's have cause the schizophrenia? Or the other way around?" The husband asked.

"No. It's just very coincidental timing. Both diseases are completely autonomous." Cameron answered him.

"And there's no cure for either?" The husband sounded devastated.

"Both are very manageable. But no, there is no cure." Cameron told him.

The husband nodded and sat down next to his wife, taking her hand and talking softly to her. Cameron and House left the room and headed back upstairs. Chase and Foreman looked up expectantly when they arrived back in the room.

"Chase, schedule a CT scan and a colonoscopy to confirm the Crohn's." House instructed him.

"So she does have it?" Foreman asked.

"It looks like it." House said. "That, and disorganised schizophrenia."

"What?" Chase and Foreman asked together.

"The disorganised speech. She's also exhibiting inappropriate affect and Anhedonia." House informed them.

"Anhedonia?" Chase questioned, not recognising the term immediately.

"The inability to experience pleasure" Foreman explained

"She's not enjoying sex. Something I guess you both come across a lot with the women you sleep with." House added with a smirk.

mdmdmdmd

The rest of the day passed quickly. The CT scan revealed an abscess in the abdomen and the colonoscopy confirmed the diagnosis of Crohn's disease. Kathy was started on a regiment of medications to help manage her disease. She was then transferred to the psyc department for her schizophrenia.

Five o'clock came and Chase and Foreman disappeared pretty quickly. Chase spent a moment trying to convince Cameron to come for a drink but she really wasn't in the mood and made up an excuse. Soon she was alone, she could hear House's music blaring in his office next door and knew he was still there. She wondered what she should do. She still really wanted to talk to him about the day before but didn't know how. She didn't want to ruin the peace that seemed to have settled between them.

For the first time since Stacy had arrived back in House's life they were almost comfortable around each other again. She didn't want to spoil that by saying something to put him back on the defensive. In the end she decided it was probably better to say nothing.

She walked towards his office, paused a moment, then stepped through the door. He saw he enter and turned the music down.

"I'm off home." She said.

He just nodded and continued to look at her with that intense gaze he possessed.

"Have a good weekend House." She said to him then turned and walked towards the door. She had reached it before he finally said something.

"Cameron." The sound of her name on his lips stopped her in her tracks. She slowly turned to look at him.

"You have a good weekend too." He said.

She nodded at him and walked out the door, a smile planted firmly on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ok here's the next chapter. This takes place directly after the episode Euphoria. At the moment nothing from Forever is included. I'll see how that storyline goes before deciding whether or not to include it here._

_This chapter doesn't work anywhere near the way I wanted it to. I'm tired of re-working it though so decided just to post. I'll try and get better in the next chapter._

_I forgot a disclaimer in the last chapter: None of these characters are mine!_

**I Thought Love Was Only True In Fairytales. Chapter 2**

_It was 3am when you woke me up, __Then we jumped in the car and drove as far as we could go, __Just to get away_

_Simple Plan_

House walked into the consultation room muttering under his breath. He really didn't want to be down here but had no choice, they had no current patient so Cuddy had sent him to the clinic. He had thought about hiding out in one of the clinic rooms but Cuddy foiled that plan by escorting him all the way down and putting the patient file into his hand.

He glanced at the patient, a young girl of about 18, and then opened the file to check her details.

"You have a sore throat, blocked nose and a cough?" He asked, reading off the file.

The girl nodded. "Could it be meningitis?"

"It could be, but it's not." House replied.

"It's not? How do you know? What is it then?" The girl asked, looking both hopeful and worried.

"It's a cold and I know because I'm a doctor." House told her. "You'll be fine in a couple of days."

The girl looked hesitant to leave but when House proceeded to ignore her and instead start playing on his PSP she soon gave up and walked out. Over the course of the next 2 hours House treated 13 patients, all of whom had completely boring, unchallenging diagnoses.

He was plotting his escape back up to his office for the afternoon as he opened and skimmed over the information in his next patient's chart.

"Yet another cold." He growled to himself as he read over the symptoms. This was too boring, he'd get rid of this patient then Cuddy would have to deal with him not doing anything for the rest of the day, it was 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon anyway. He was impressed with himself that he had stayed down here so long already, escape was definitely imminent.

"Congratulations Mr" he paused to check the patients name. "Meeks. You have a cold." House told him and turned to leave the room.

"Wait!" The patient said.

House turned back to the patient slowly, he fixed his blue eyes directly on the boy and waited. The silence stretched out as the patient didn't say anything further. House raised an eyebrow but still didn't say anything. The silence held for a few more seconds until the patient finally broke it.

"My vision is fuzzy as well." He finally said in a hesitant voice.

"Fuzzy?" House asked, his curiosity aroused slightly. "What do you mean by fuzzy?"

"I can't see properly, everything's kind of blurred." The patient replied.

"How long has it been like this?" House asked him.

"Since this morning." The boy told him, sounding more confident now.

House nodded and pointed at a eye-test chart on the wall. "Cover your right eye and start at the top. Read out as much as you can."

The boy complied and started to read. After a moment House stopped him.

"Is the vision blurry in both eyes or just one?" He asked.

"Both" The patient said.

"Ah. Well this is very serious then." House told him.

"It is?" The boy sounded excited, confirming House's suspicions.

"Yeah, very serious. We may even have to admit you." House said.

"Admit me? For how long? What do I have?" There was only excitement in the patient's voice, not what you'd generally expect from someone being told they had to be admitted to a hospital because they had something serious.

"A little thing called you can't lie to save your life." House replied. "Come back when you've learnt to lie better."

"What? I'm not lying!" The boy said.

"Yes you are. If your vision was blurry you would have got the chart wrong, but would have said letters that were close in shape to the letters up there. You were just making up letters, therefore your vision is fine but you wanted me to believe it's not. You have a cold." House said.

"So you're not going to admit me?" The boy sounded deflated now.

"For a cold? No." House told him.

"But you said…" The patient began.

"I lied. Unlike you though, I'm actually good at it," House smirked.

"Please. I have finals next week and I'm gonna fail. My parent's will kill me, can't you pretend I have something serious so I don't have to sit them?" The boy pleaded.

House paused and pretended to think about it for a moment. "Well I'll tell you what you can do." He said.

"Yeah?" The boy sat forward eagerly.

"Try opening a book sometime during the weekend." House told him and then walked out of the room. He had a date with his PSP and he didn't want to miss it.

He made it up to his office without incident and sank into his chair comfortably. Through the glass he could see Chase and Foreman. He wondered where Cameron was, it wasn't like her to skive off early.

He pulled out his PSP and started to play but he couldn't concentrate properly. The fact that Cameron wasn't there, was bugging him. He wanted to know where she was. It was easy to convince himself he wanted to know purely because he was her boss, not for any interest in her personally. He heaved himself to his feet and limped into the conference room.

Chase and Foreman looked up as he came into the room. Neither were doing anything particularly productive. It had been three days since Foreman was released from the hospital after his near-death illness. He was still mixing up his left and rights a bit which made him very slow when it came to doing any tasks, but he was getting there.

House sat down at the table. "Good to see the two of you working so hard." He said with sarcasm in his voice, he didn't really care though and they knew it. As long as they were doing their job when they had a patient he didn't much care what they did during other times.

Neither Chase or Foreman bothered with a response to his comment. Instead Chase asked the question he was stuck on from his crossword.

"Sleep-inducing. 9 letters. Starts with S" he asked House.

"Soporific" House replied without hesitation.

Chase filled it in and moved on to the next clue.

"Where's Cameron." This time House asked the question.

Chase glanced up from his crossword but it was Foreman that answered.

"In the immunology department. They were a doctor short today so she's helping out." Foreman told him.

House nodded, he pulled out his PSP and started to play again. Usually he would have gone back into his office but he didn't want Foreman and Chase to know that the only reason he had come in here was to find out where Cameron was. Just the fact that he wasn't going back into his office irritated him. He didn't like that he cared what they thought, usually he didn't care what anyone thought. Yet, still he was sitting there with them, pretending that it had been his intention all along.

5 o'clock came and Cameron had yet to make an appearance. Foreman and Chase both waited until five past before picking up their stuff and heading out the door. House flicked off his PSP and sat back in the chair staring up at the ceiling. He had just spent the last two hours sitting with the Tweedledum and Tweedledee waiting for Cameron to appear, he had to admit that to himself now because there really was no other explanation. Professional interest in her whereabouts wouldn't cover this one unfortunately.

So now he had admitted that to himself, he had to figure out what to do about it. There were a few options, none of which appealed to him. He could ask her out, a bit of a risk since she had yelled at him that she was over him a few months ago. She had probably been lying though. He could sleep with her and hope that got her out of his system. Not the best plan because he'd probably then have to hire someone new for the fellowship, undoubtedly, Cameron wouldn't be able to handle being a 'friend with benefits' and also being colleagues. He could ignore his interest in her, after all it was just a passing interest, and hope he didn't do anything stupid again like taking her for a ride to watch the sunrise.

He sighed and stood up. For now he'd ignore his interest in her and go see if Wilson wanted to hang out. He limped into his office and grabbed his jacket and bag then limped out of his office and next-door to Wilson's office. He didn't notice Cameron emerge from where she had been standing. She had been watching him, unseen by anyone who mattered, from the moment Chase and Foreman had stood up to leave. She wondered what he had been thinking about as he stared at he ceiling and she wondered why he hadn't been in his own office, alone.

It had been over a month since they watched the sunrise together. In that time House had basically ignored her. Oh, he had been concerned for her when she was looking in Joe's apartment for the cause of Foreman's illness, but he would have been concerned for any of them. That hadn't meant anything and she knew it. At first, once she had time to think about it because Foreman was out of danger, she had tried to convince herself his concern was purely for her. She hadn't been able to convince herself though. House's change in personality due to his worry over Foreman had more than proved that he didn't want any of them getting sick and dying, not just her.

She had taken to watching more than usual over the time since their little expedition. What she saw when he thought no-one was around interested her. He was unguarded and his face was almost open. There was also a ton of anguish in his eyes and expression and, dammit, he was right so long ago when he said she wanted to fix him. She didn't want to make him less sarcastic, nicer to people or take away his limp and Vicodin addiction. What she wanted to fix was that look of hurt that she saw on his face when there was no-one else around.

He was wrong about one thing though, her reasons for wanting to be with him weren't to fix him. Sure, she wanted to be the one to make him happy, really happy. But her reasons for wanting to be with him were far more seated in lust, he was attractive, brilliant and had the deepest blue eyes of anyone she had ever met. She wasn't planning a wedding for them, she just wanted a chance to date him and to run her hands over that finely-sculpted body. If it turned into more one day she'd be open to that, but it wasn't the thought that was constantly on her mind. Despite everyone's preconceptions of her as some sort of innocent saint, really she was just a woman. Pity sleeping with Chase hadn't proved that to everyone.

She heard House and Wilson bantering as they left Wilson's office. They didn't come in the direction of the conference room and their voices faded as they left for the day. Cameron spent an idle moment wondering what they got up to when they hung out. She was a little jealous of Wilson, he got to see a side of House no-one else ever did. That jealousy didn't spread far though, she liked Wilson too much to be really jealous of him. She packed up her stuff and headed out of the hospital herself, wondering what she should do with the evening.

_Mdmdmdmd_

The time was 2am. Cameron was lying awake in her bed thinking. After leaving the hospital she had gone to the video store, picked up a dvd and headed home to watch it. She supposed she could have called a friend to do something, she didn't have a lot of friends but she did have people who would be more than happy to spend a quiet evening, or a noisy evening, with her. She didn't feel like being with people though, being alone sounded much more appealing.

She had ordered Chinese food and watched the dvd, then had an early night. Sleep had come easily, but now, somehow, she was wide awake. She wondered again what House and Wilson had got up to for the evening. At 2am on a Friday night it was possible they were still up enjoying themselves but Cameron doubted it somehow. Her thoughts strayed to the morning her and House watched the sun come up. It had been such a beautiful morning and had come as such a surprise. She wished she could invite him somewhere as easily as he had invited her on that ride. She couldn't though, she'd be terrified he had other plans and being turned down really wouldn't sit well with her.

When she had pushed herself on him so compulsively before their first date she had been so confident in herself. That confidence was gone now, the date had been so disastrous. Looking back it alluded her as to why she thought talking about their feelings and forcing him into a date would work. Unfortunately she had been at that mad state of the crush. The time when it feels like you will go crazy if you don't have the object of your affection and you can't imagine that they don't like you back because you are convinced you are meant to be together. That mad state had passed now. Cameron was no longer at all sure he liked her and she completely lacked confidence in her chances of ever being with him.

So, therein lay the problem. Cameron wanted to spend time with him outside of work, to show him slowly that they could work together, but lacked the ability to actually ask him to do anything. Lying there in the darkness Cameron made a decision. You were always at your bravest in the middle of the night, with darkness as a camouflage and it was pretty doubtful he was busy at this time of the morning. She would do exactly what he did and just do it, just invite him out, seemingly randomly.

She swung her legs out of bed and found some clothes. She took her time getting ready, she was in no hurry now that she had a plan. Once she was ready she grabbed her car keys and checked her watch. 2.45am. There was a nice symmetry to the last time she had spent time with him and she liked that, even if it was actually unintentional.

The drive to House's place took 10 minutes and Cameron sat in her car for a few more minutes deciding whether or not she was actually going to do this and gathering the bravery it would take to make the call. Eventually she took a deep breath and realised she was just going to have to do it, psyching herself up wasn't working, it was just making her desperate to drive away.

She picked up her cellphone and dialled his number. The phone rang four times before he picked up. With each ring her mind screamed at her to hang up. But her hand didn't comply with her brain and she kept the phone pressed to her ear.

"Someone better be dead." House's voice startled her. He had definitely been sleeping, she could hear it in his voice.

"Well someone probably is, but it's no-one I know." Cameron replied.

"Then why are you ringing me at three in the morning?" House questioned, recognising her voice.

"Want to go for a drive?" Cameron figured she may as well channel him, it had worked on her after all.

"No. I want to sleep." House told her.

"Oh. Ok." Cameron yelled at herself in her head, she had to have known he was going to say no, she should have come up with something clever to say when he rejected her. Then she heard a sigh at the other end of the phone.

"Give me five minutes." The line went dead as House hung up.

_mdmdmdmd_

The five minutes passed achingly slowly. Cameron couldn't believe he was actually coming and was now filled with a nervous, nauseous feeling. She had not thought this through and had no idea what she was going to do when he got to the car.

Suddenly, he was there and she had no more time to think. Her breath hitched as she watched him approach the car. He was wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt. To her, he looked devastatingly sexy. He opened the passenger door of the car and got in. He didn't waste time with pleasantries, that wasn't his style.

"So where are we going?" He asked her.

"That would be telling." Cameron smirked, the words coming to her easily despite her earlier worries.

She started the car and pulled back into the street. House fiddled with the stereo for a moment then pulled his Ipod out of his pocket. Cameron glanced at him in surprise, he wasn't the friendliest person but to put her radio onto static so she had nothing to listen to then listen to his Ipod and ignore her seemed a little bizarre even for him.

"Itrip." He said, seeing her surprised expression and surmising what it meant. "You use it to play the Ipod through the stereo."

"Oh. Right." Cameron nodded and couldn't think of anything else to say so kept quiet.

The opening bars of The Who's Baba O'Riley filled the car and the silence was no longer awkward as they both listened to the music.

Cameron didn't want to take them to the same place House took her. Instead she decided to head to one of her favourite places in the world, a place where she spent many hours sitting alone just after her husband had died. A beautiful beach, about an hour and a half's drive away. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore had always soothed her and she wanted to share it with House, even if he wouldn't know how important it was to her.

The drive passed quickly, albeit in silence between the two. House kept up a steady stream of music playing through the speakers. When they arrived at their destination they both got out of the car, House didn't ask where they were or why and Cameron didn't bother to volunteer the information.

There was not another person to be seen anywhere on the beach, not a surprise at almost 5am. Without discussion House and Cameron started towards the sand. Cameron stopped to slip off her shoes and bury her toes in the cool sand. House had moved a few steps forward, not noticing her stop. He glanced behind him when he realised she was no longer beside him and couldn't stop the smile from curling at his lips as he looked at her. She looked different to how she looked at work, there she always looked tense and sad. He thought that now she looked free and happy, free from the burdens that she usually carried around so plainly. His smile was gone as quickly as it had come but Cameron had seen it and it filled her with confidence.

She walked forward, towards him. House didn't move as she came closer. He couldn't, he was transfixed by her, by her beauty and the open expression on her face. She reached him and took his hand in hers. Their eyes met and they stared at each other for a moment. Cameron heard him let out a little sigh, almost of defeat, and then their lips met. The kiss was fierce and filled with desperation, filled with over a year of unfulfilled desire.

House's hand reached up and ran through her hair, his other hand had dropped his cane and was currently on her back, pulling her even closer towards him. She slipped her hands underneath his t-shirt feeling the warmth of his skin underneath her fingers. She felt a shiver run through him as skin touched skin and she marvelled that she was the cause of the reaction.

As though by unspoken consensus they both pulled away from each other, but neither went far. House's left hand was still tangled in her hair, his right around her waist, she kept her hands running over the smooth skin of his back. He leaned his forehead on her's and took a deep breath. He looked deep into her eyes and kissed her again, softly and briefly this time. This time when they pulled apart they went further and Cameron felt an almost physical pain at the loss of contact with him. She sat down in the sand and he followed suit, sitting beside her.

The silence stretched on between them, neither knew quite how to break it, quite what to say. Eventually Cameron couldn't take it any longer and she spoke, just wanting to fill the silence.

"I used to come here a lot just after my husband died." She couldn't help wondering if this comment was a mistake and expected a sarcastic response to come from the man sitting beside her. She was pleasantly surprised when none did.

"It is a beautiful spot" was all he said.

"I didn't marry him because he had cancer." She said, needing him to understand that.

House glanced in her direction and considered her for a moment. "I know" he replied.

"We had been dating for three years when he was diagnosed." She stared at the lapping waves as she began her story, comforted by the sound. House remained silent as she spoke, fighting the desire to make a scathing remark and leave her alone here. He truly was interested in why she had married a dying man and he knew she needed to talk about it. These two facts kept him silent and kept him sitting there.

"_Luke proposed to me two months before the diagnosis. We were on holiday in New York and he proposed on top of the Empire State Building. About at cheesy and cliché as it comes but at the time it seemed so romantic. I said yes, but planned for a long engagement. I knew I wanted to marry him but a part of me thought we were still a bit young to make that commitment. A long engagement seemed like a good way to go._

_When he was diagnosed he thought I was going to leave him. He tried really hard to make me leave but I couldn't do it. I loved him and the fact that he was dying didn't change that, it didn't make me want to be with him any less. I told him I wanted to get married anyway but he wouldn't hear of it. He refused and left me, moved home to his parents'._

_It took months to get him to talk to me again. I was devastated and couldn't bear the idea of him dying without us ever resolving our differences, without him understanding that I still loved him_."

Cameron paused and glanced at House, she was about to tell him more than she had ever told anyone but she didn't know if she could get the words out. As though he understood, he reached for her hand and held it tightly, rubbing his thumb in circles on the back just as he had done that other morning. Cameron took a deep breath and continued, reassured by his gesture,

"_There was a huge part of me that was relieved he didn't want anything to do with me. I didn't want to watch the man I loved die and the fact that I had been willing to stay but he walked away absolved me of any guilt about it. I couldn't do it though, couldn't not try to get him to talk to me again. I didn't want him to die alone. No-one should have to die alone._

_One day he answered the phone when I called. Usually his mom answered and told me he wouldn't talk to me. I know she tried to make him, but he wouldn't. This day though, he did come to the phone when she told him it was me. He was having a really bad day and I think he just didn't have the strength to say no right then. I convinced him that I wanted to be there with him, that I needed to be with him in his final days._

_He moved back in and we began planning the wedding again. I don't know why we did it really. It was so stupid, just being together would have been enough. We needed to prove to each other that it was true love though. I think I had that need more than him because I felt guilty that so much of me wished he had just stayed away._

_Our parents didn't want us to get married, they could see that it was a stupid idea. Nothing was going to convince us of that though, so we went ahead with it anyway. The wedding was nice, small and cheap but nice. It was one of his good days and I'll never forget the look on his face as I walked down the aisle towards him. That look made it all worth it to me, it assured me I was doing the right thing. It was going to be harder on me in the long run but I'd given him something that made him so happy, that would make his last days just that little bit more bearable._

_That day was one of the last really good ones. He started to go downhill pretty fast after that and kept getting sicker. Eventually he was admitted to hospital and we knew he wasn't going to be released this time. I spent so much of my time at the hospital with him. His best friend, Joe, did too. Luke was asleep most of the time so me and Joe spent a lot of time together and got closer. I started to fall in love with Joe instead. _

_My guilt tripled when I realised I had fallen for my husband's best friend. Under different circumstances a relationship might have worked out between us, but there was too much guilt there. I didn't cheat. I intended to, but in the end neither of us could go through with it. I don't know though, perhaps just the intent makes me a cheater. Just because we didn't complete the physical act, doesn't mean we didn't want to._

_When Luke died I couldn't talk to Joe anymore. I felt so guilty and to be with him would have kept that guilt going for the rest of my life. I think he felt the same. So I walked away and I haven't spoken to him since._"

Cameron went quiet. She couldn't believe she had just spilt so much of her heart to House. This was one of those mistakes she was supposed to be avoiding making with him again. There was a silence as the two of them stared out into the distance. House knew he wasn't good at sensitive comments so was not saying anything. He didn't want to make a sarcastic comment but thought he probably would if he opened his mouth.

The silence was just beginning to stretch on too long when Cameron decided she had to break it.

"We should get back." She said. Now that daylight had come her bravery was gone.

House nodded and looked at his watch.

"Yeah. Wilson will think I'm cheating on him if he comes over and I'm not there." House replied, wincing at his words since Cameron had just been talking about cheating.

"Oh. You guys got something fun planned?" Cameron asked, hoping she didn't sound like she wanted to be invited along.

"No. Wilson thinks I need a babysitter on the weekends so turns up every Saturday around ten thirty. He thinks it looks spontaneous but he's really very predictable." House told her.

"It's nice that he cares." Cameron said wistfully, wishing she had someone in her life that cared that much about her. She had friends but lacked a really close best friend.

"Hmmm, nice." House's tone implied that he didn't think much of nice.

The two of them walked slowly back to the car. House had dropped her hand when he stood up and hadn't taken it again. Neither of them could think of anything to say so the small talk began.

"It looks like it's going to be a nice weekend." Cameron said,. She cringed inwardly at herself for making a comment about the weather and waited for House's biting comment.

"Well thank God. I have so many outdoor activities planned. Walks in the park, that sort of thing" was his reply.

"A walk in the park? I would've thought you'd prefer to run." Cameron said, hoping he wouldn't be insulted by the joke.

"No, this is my weekend off from marathon training. A walk is all I'm allowed to do." House told her.

"Oh, of course." Cameron smiled. She had noticed that his voice lacked the venom it sometimes contained.

They reached the car and both got in. House picked up his Ipod and started selecting tracks. The drive was again filled with music and no talking. Both were thinking about that kiss on the beach and what it was going to mean for them.

Cameron pulled up to House's and stopped the car. House turned off his Ipod and slipped it into his pocket then opened the door. He got half out the door before turning to look at Cameron.

"Cameron." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "About earlier…"

"I'll see you on Monday, House. Enjoy your weekend." Cameron interrupted him. She really didn't want to hear him say the words that she knew he was going to, didn't want to hear him say that it didn't change anything between them.

House nodded. "Monday. Yeah."

With that he got out of the car and limped to his door. Cameron pulled away and drove slowly back to her house. She now had a whole weekend to fill in and no idea what to do with it.

_Mdmdmd_

Monday morning came and Cameron was getting ready for work. Her weekend had been pretty much the same as usual. She had spent Saturday cleaning her apartment and doing some reading. Sunday she had met a friend for lunch then done some shopping. It had been relaxing and she had done her best to keep her mind off House.

She wondered what would happen when she got to work. She was expecting nothing, for him to be no different, but she couldn't help hoping that maybe something had changed. The memory of his lips on hers was still fresh in her mind and she hoped like crazy that she would get to experience it again sometime soon.

She got in her car and drove the short distance to work. She was the first one there, unsurprising, particularly on a Monday. She busied herself getting coffee ready and sat down with a journal article she had been meaning to read for the past couple of weeks. She was almost finished the article by the time Chase made an appearance, followed quickly by Foreman.

The three of them idly chatted about what they had got up to on the weekend. Cameron, of course, left out her trip to the beach with House. At ten past nine Cuddy came in looking for House, she had a patient for them. She didn't seem surprised that he wasn't there yet and left the file with them, asking them to page her when he finally put in an appearance.

They didn't have to wait long. Ten minutes later House strolled into his office and sat down at his desk. Almost immediately the sound of music blaring out of speakers began and the three fellows eyed each other, silently debating who was going to go in there and tell him Cuddy had a patient for them.

Cameron lost, as she always did, and walked into his office to get him while Chase paged Cuddy. House looked up as she walked in and turned the music down so she could speak. She smiled to herself. Something had definitely changed. Usually he would have forced her to shout over the music for a bit before he turned it down.

"Cuddy came in about ten minutes ago. She has a patient for us." Cameron told him.

He rolled his eyes and heaved himself up off his chair then followed Cameron into the conference room.

"Coffee?" He questioned Cameron who went over and started making it for him. She knew she should refuse and make him get his own coffee, making coffee wasn't what she was employed for, but she enjoyed it. She liked that if she left he would at least miss that, although she hoped he would miss other things about her as well.

Cameron was just handing him his red mug when Cuddy walked in.

"Ah Doctor Cuddy, how nice of you to join us." House said in a mock jovial tone.

"Only twenty minutes late today House? This should be cause for celebration." Cuddy replied.

"I like to mix it up a bit, keep everyone guessing." House told her.

"I've got a patient for you. A twenty-nine year old male. Presenting with shaking, memory loss, weight loss and jaundice." Cuddy told him.

House eyed her. "And why do I have to take this patient?"

"Because he's sick and I thought maybe you could diagnose him. A crazy idea I know." Cuddy replied.

"No. There's another reason. Something that made you come all the way down here when usually you'd make me come to you." House said.

"Fine. It's that actor, Jay Phillips. His agent's heard of you and requested you specifically. The media's going to be all over this if we screw it up, House." Cuddy said.

"Jay Phillips?" Cameron piped up. "Should I go take a history?"

House looked at her in surprise, she wasn't usually so eager to go and take a family history. He suspected it made more to do with who the patient was and what he looked like than a desire to do her job. He didn't like the jealous feeling that thought caused in him.

"No. Chase can do it. I don't want you drooling all over him." House told her.

"You're going to take the case?" Cuddy asked, unable to hide her surprise.

"If I have a choice then no. However it didn't sound like you were going to give me one." House grumbled.

"No, no choice." Cuddy made her escape quickly before he could change his mind and start fighting her on it again.

House glanced at Chase. "Well what are you waiting for? Go get his history."

Chase left the room and House limped over to the whiteboard.

"Ok differential, people. This one should be pretty obvious" He wrote up the four symptoms they knew as he spoke.

"Delerium Tremens or Wernicke's. Cameron suggested. "We should get an EEG, I'll do it."

"Not so fast there sparky." House responded. "Foreman can do the EEG. He's the neurologist."

"Shouldn't we wait for the history? See if there's a problem with alcohol?" Foreman asked.

"He's a movie star, of course he's an alcoholic!" House said in frustration.

"That's a pretty big leap to make. Just because he's famous doesn't mean he's got an alcohol problem." Foreman insisted.

"No, the two just seem to go together a lot. He's not going to admit to it anyway. Everybody lies, especially celebrities trying to protect their image. Go get the EEG." House instructed him.

Foreman shrugged and went to do as he was instructed, leaving House and Cameron alone.

"So you're just not going to let me near the patient?" Cameron asked House.

"And have you go to mush because he's…" House's voice raised a couple of octaves as he started to put on an imitation of an excited teenage girl. "just so, like, handsome and such a great actor and I just want to marry him and have his babies." House's voice dropped back to its normal pitch. "No thanks."

Cameron rolled her eyes. "I'm a professional. I'm not going to behave like that."

"Please! I remember what you were like when Doctor TB was here. You practically prostrated yourself at his feet." House told her.

"I did no such thing! I can't believe you're jealous!" Cameron said, her voice raising to nearly a yell.

"Pfff" was all that came out of House's mouth as he struggled to defend himself and regain the high ground.

"Oh, exhalation. Great comeback!" Cameron's voice dripped with sarcasm.

House's reply was interrupted by the arrival of Wilson.

"I hear Jay Phillips is here." Wilson said in an excited tone as he walked into the room. Instantly he noticed the tension and stopped, wrinkling his face in confusion as he tried to work out what had been happening before his arrival.

"Not you too. I thought I was the only man for you." House said to Wilson.

Wilson looked between Cameron and House. House's response had told him that whatever had been going on had something to do with their celebrity patient and he guessed the argument wasn't work-related. He decided it was best to leave it for now and talk to House about it later, when he wasn't so tense.

"So what's wrong with our celebrity?" Wilson glanced at the whiteboard. "Wernicke's or Delerium Tenens? Not a very broad spectrum."

"When the symptoms fit…" House replied.

"Do you think he'd sign an autograph for me?" Wilson interrupted.

House looked at him in disbelief.

"Not actually for me. For my neice, she loves him." He quickly clarified.

House nodded as though he didn't believe him and Cameron smothered a giggle at the thought of a grown man wanting to get a teen heart-throb's autograph.

"What? She does." Wilson insisted. He suddenly decided to test the waters with House a bit to see if he could spark a reaction. "You want to come with me Cameron?" He asked with a cheeky grin at Cameron.

"Sure." Cameron smiled back, she really did want to go down and see this guy.

"Cameron, you can't just leave. We're still working on the differential." House told her, the irritation in his voice evident.

"There's not much more we can do until Chase comes back with the history and Foreman comes back with the EEG results. Ten minutes won't hurt." Cameron told him. She wasn't going to let him make her miss this opportunity.

Cameron and Wilson didn't bother waiting for House's response. They left the room and headed for Jay's room.

"So thing's seemed pretty tense when I walked in." Wilson decided to try and broach the subject with Cameron first.

"Just House being House." Cameron replied.

Wilson decided to leave it. He'd push House about it later. He knew that whatever he'd walked into wasn't just House being House. It was just that he wasn't exactly sure what it was.

They walked into the room and Jay Phillips looked up. Cameron couldn't help the small intake of breath she had when his green eyes looked at her. He was actually better looking in the flesh than he was on the screen. He flashed a grin at her.

"How come I didn't get you doing my history?" He joked, with a rueful look at Chase. He held out a hand to Cameron. "I'm Jay Phillips."

Cameron reached forward and shook his hand. "Hi. I'm Doctor Cameron."

Jay let his hand linger on Cameron's a little longer than necessary.

"It's nice to meet you Doctor Cameron." He flashed that heart-stopping grin again.

Wilson stepped forward. "I'm Doctor Wilson. My niece is a huge fan of yours, I was wondering if I could get an autograph for her? I'd never have to get her a birthday or Christmas present again."

"Sure. Just as soon as Doctor Cameron here cures me and stops this damn shaking I'd be happy to." Jay told him. "At the moment it'd look like a monkey wrote it."

Chase was looking a little irritated and chose this moment to interrupt.

"Cameron? I'm done with the history, we should get back upstairs." He said.

Cameron nodded. "Sure." She turned back to Jay. "It was nice to meet you."

"You too. I just wish circumstances were better. I promise, usually I make a way better first impression." Jay said to her.

Cameron just smiled and left the room with Chase.

"Sorry to drag you away from your flirting." Chase said in a disgruntled tone once they were out of earshot of the patient..

"Flirting? I just introduced myself to the guy!" Cameron defended herself.

"I heard your tone and you were practically sitting in the guy's lap!" Chase said.

Unfortunately, he said this just as they walked into the conference room. A quick glance at House was all it took for Cameron to know that he had heard what Chase had said. He didn't look happy, but covered it quickly.

"So you did drool all over the patient then?" House asked her.

"No! I introduced myself and shook his hand. I was being polite!" Cameron told them both.

"Oh yeah it was real innocent." Chase said sarcastically.

"Shut-up Chase." Cameron said tiredly.

This was exactly what she didn't need, House to decide she had fallen for their patient. It would be a nice excuse for him to back off completely from whatever it was that was happening between them. Fortunately Chase took her advice and did stop talking about it.

They continued to toss around ideas. The most likely suspect they kept coming back to was Wernicke's. Chase had told them that Jay had denied alcohol abuse but they all agreed that he could easily be lying. Cameron made the mistake of mentioning that Wernicke's wasn't only caused by alcohol abuse, that was just its most common cause. This comment got her dirty looks from both House and Chase. She wisely decided not to make any further comments that looked like defence of their patient.

Foreman arrived back with the results of the EEG. Unsurprisingly to the team, the results confirmed the diagnosis of Wernicke's.

House smirked. "Well that was a boring diagnosis. Start him on treatment. I'm going to have lunch."

He disappeared out the door. Chase offered to go down and talk to Jay, Cameron agreed thinking it was best she stayed away from him. She knew she shouldn't let House get to her but she couldn't help it, he did.

The rest of the day passed slowly. House stayed secluded in his office with music blaring after he returned to lunch. Chase, Foreman and Cameron all got to work on paperwork.

Just before five o'clock the door to the conference room opened and Jay Phillips walked in. Cameron jumped up when she saw him.

"Jay. You shouldn't be out of bed, you're still sick." She said to him. A furtive glance through the glass into House's office showed that he had seen Jay arrive and was now limping towards the conference room.

"I know, I know." Jay said. "I was bored and lonely. And I wondered why the beautiful doctor hadn't come back to visit me."

Cameron could feel her cheeks heat up. Out of the corner of her eye she could see House leaning, pseudo-casually against the doorframe.

"I had paperwork to do. Now we should get you back to bed." She said.

Jay raised an eyebrow and gave a cheeky grin. "Back to bed? Really? Doctor Cameron we haven't even had a first date yet!"

Cameron sighed. Foreman looked completely amused by the whole situation but Chase seemed irritated. As for House, he had a look of complete indifference on his face.

Jay took the hint that Cameron wasn't up for playing games and apologised.

"Okay okay I'll go back to my room." He said repentantly. "But you have to promise me that when I'm better you'll let me take you out."

"What! Why?" Chase burst out. He had the grace to look embarrassed when everyone in the room glanced at him in surprise.

"Because I need to prove to the beautiful Doctor Cameron that I can make a good first impression." Jay answered. He looked back at Cameron. "So? What do you say? Can I take you to dinner?"

Cameron didn't know what to say. She wanted to say no but couldn't think of a good excuse.

"We'll see." Was all she said.

Jay grinned. "Good enough for me!" He sauntered back out of the room.

Foreman burst out laughing.

"A date with a mega-star! Way to go Cameron." He said.

"I didn't say yes." Cameron tried to argue. She saw that House had disappeared back into his office.

"You didn't say no though." Chase said petulantly.

Cameron rolled her eyes, she couldn't be bothered arguing with these two about it. The person whose opinion about the whole situation she cared about was no longer in the room and probably wouldn't listen to her anyway.

Foreman and Chase both started to pack away their stuff and get ready to go home, seeing that Cameron wasn't going to answer. As soon as they had left Cameron went into House's office. This time he didn't turn down the music for her.

"Can I talk to you?" Cameron shouted over the music.

House hesitated and Cameron was sure he was going to just ignore her. She was just deciding what to do when he reached over and turned down the music.

"Talk." He said.

"About Jay Phillips. I didn't flirt with him." Cameron started.

"Oh! Well that explains why he asked you out then. I always ask people out that show no interest in me." House couldn't hide the annoyance or hurt in his voice.

"Just because he asked me out doesn't mean I'm going to go." Cameron said.

"Why wouldn't you go? He's a celebrity." House grumbled.

"So? I don't care about that. I'm not interested in him." She put a slight emphasis on the word him hoping that it would assure House who she was interested in.

She could see that he understood so was surprised at the next words out of his mouth.

"You should go out with him." House told her.

"What? Why?" She asked in surprise.

He gestured vaguely between them. "This, you and me? It's never going to happen. You shouldn't put your life on hold waiting for something that isn't going to work out."

"Why is it never going to happen?" Cameron demanded. "We seemed to be getting on okay on Saturday morning."

"It's never going to happen because I don't want it to." House practically yelled. He needed her to get out.

"Don't want it to? You could have fooled me." Cameron raised her voice to match his.

"Well I guess I did." House said and turned his music back on, loud.

Cameron looked at him for a few minutes and then gave up and left. This wasn't the place to be discussing it anyway.

House watched her leave and hoped it would be the end of it. He knew it wouldn't be, she was far too stubborn to just give up. He hoped she'd go out with Jay Phillips, it wrenched him apart to think about it but it would be best for her. It had been all he could think about all afternoon. How much better off she'd be with someone her own age, someone who didn't have a whole load of emotional baggage, someone who could treat her the way she deserved to be treated. He wasn't that guy and he never could be. He could do one thing for her though, and that was push her away so she found someone who was good for her. That was as much self-sacrifice as he could manage.


	3. Chapter 3

Cameron decided not to head straight home. She needed to think and didn't want to do it in her cold apartment. Her first instinct was to drive to the beach, it had always proved the perfect place to think. She didn't really want to go there though, the memory of kissing House there was still too strong. Instead, she headed for the lookout he had taken her to that first morning.

She didn't think much as she drove. She let the music blare out of her speakers and sung along at the top of her lungs. This relaxed her and by the time she reached the lookout she was ready to focus about the situation with House and what she should do about it.

She stayed in her car when she arrived. The weather was chilly outside and she thought she'd be better off staying where the heater was. She turned the music down slightly but continued to let it wash over her as she closed her eyes and sunk deep into thought.

What should she do, she wondered. She was letting House get to her again which is something she had promised herself after that last time that she wouldn't let happen. She was making decisions based on what she thought he would think of them and that wasn't right. She wanted to just go with the flow but with House it was hard, she was so incredibly attracted to him and it wasn't as easy to get him into bed as it was with other guys. He was resisting and she wasn't used to that. Usually it was her resisting the guys that were coming on to her.

It didn't help that he seemed to have a skewed perception of her. She was sure he still thought she was out for marriage, and of course he believed she desperately wanted to fix him. She had no idea how to prove to him that she didn't want to fix him and definitely wasn't thinking about marriage.

She sighed, really there wasn't a lot she could do about the whole situation. House was as stubborn as they came and if he had really decided they could never be together then Cameron doubted she'd be able to change his mind. She could try, but she didn't know how long she could go on trying before she would have to give up.

After a while her thoughts turned to Jay Phillips. It was flattering that a celebrity wanted to take her out but she didn't know what she should do about it. A part of her really wanted to say yes and just go out and enjoy it. She wasn't naïve enough to think that it would work out, but one date would be fun and would be something to tell her friends about. If it wasn't for House she would be happy to say yes. But she really didn't want to ruin all possibility of ever being with House by going out with someone else only a couple of days after she had kissed him on the beach.

After tossing the idea around in her mind for more than an hour she decided that she would go out with Jay if he asked her. He was going to be in hospital for at least another week, which gave House a week to ask her out again, if he did that then she wouldn't go out with Jay. She didn't hold out much hope for House, he had clearly decided she was better off without him.

Feeling more relaxed and at ease Cameron drove home again. She cooked herself some dinner and settled down with her book. The rest of the evening passed quickly for her. At one point she wondered what House was doing with his evening but quickly pushed that thought aside, deciding it wasn't a healthy thing to be thinking about.

_mdmdmd_

Across town House was sulking with an excess of Vicodin and his piano. His leg had been especially painful this evening which didn't help his mood. Wilson had tried to tag along home with him when he left the hospital a little before 6pm. He hadn't been in the mood for company though, particularly Wilson's incredibly annoying brand of caring company.

He'd brushed Wilson off and headed off on his own. His first impulse had been to take his bike for a long ride, maybe to the lookout point he often went to. But after taking Cameron there it was spoilt for him. He couldn't go there without thinking about her and he really didn't want to think about her this evening. Instead he'd headed straight home and had been at his piano ever since.

He rubbed his leg thoughtfully, wondering why it was hurting more than usual. He knew what Wilson would say if he was there, and if he knew what had been going on for the last couple of days. He'd say that it was all in his head because he'd pushed Cameron away. That was ridiculous though, House knew he was in pain because of his stupid leg not because of Cameron.

House cursed under his breath. Thinking about his leg and Wilson's reaction to it had brought him right back to thinking about Cameron. He wondered, not for the first time tonight, if he had made the right decision.

He knew he had made the moral decision; he was never going to be able to give Cameron what he was sure she needed. He was never going to be that sweet, cuddly boyfriend. If she wanted that she should have gone after Wilson.

He didn't even want to begin analysing the shot of jealousy that sped through him as he had that thought.

He wondered if he should have just slept with her, was still considering doing just that. It wouldn't be moral but it would be fun and might get her out of his system. That kiss on the beach had been mind-blowing and had left him in no doubt as to how good the sex would be. He didn't think he could bring himself to do it though, not least because they worked together.

With a sigh he stood up and limped towards his bedroom. He wasn't going to resolve anything tonight so may as well go to sleep.

_Mdmdmdmd_

The next morning at work it was obvious from the moment House arrived that he was in a bad mood. He stomped into his office and didn't speak to anyone all day. Wilson came by and Cameron watched through the glass as he spoke to House. He didn't stay long and she guessed House hadn't been very receptive to whatever it was he had been saying.

Not long after one o'clock Cuddy dropped through and must have won a battle with House to get him to go to the clinic because he limped out of his office and didn't return again until nearly five.

Cameron wished they had a patient other than Jay. Now that he was diagnosed there wasn't anything they needed to talk about as a team so they were all going their separate ways. She wanted House to have to talk to her without it having to be about anything personal. She wanted to know how he was going to act towards her.

When House arrived back at his office Cameron was surprised that his music didn't turn straight on. Foreman and Chase had already left for the day, sneaking away early since there wasn't a lot to do, so Cameron decided to take a chance. She got up and walked into House's office.

"Hey" she said.

He had been sitting in his chair with his hands and head on his cane. When she spoke he looked up at her.

"Hey" he replied.

"So Cuddy got you huh?"

"Yep. Apparently going for it all night long wasn't enough for that insatiable minx so I had to service her in her office all afternoon."

Cameron wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of having a reaction to that comment so she just nodded sagely.

"Must be tough for you. Thank God for Viagra huh?" She said, hoping, but feeling pretty confident, that he wouldn't get offended.

To her surprise he actually almost smiled. She saw a definite twitching of his lips as he pulled his Vicodin bottle out of his pocket and shook it slightly.

"I should have known you'd figure out what was really in here. All this time everyone else assumed it's pain medication"

Cameron was saved from having to come up with a witty comeback by Cuddy's arrival. She looked quite surprised at the way Cameron was leaning on the doorframe and Cameron suddenly realised she was standing in a fairly provocative way. She straightened up quickly, before cursing herself when she realised that just made her look even more guilty. To add to her annoyance over the situation was the way House smirked knowingly, guessing exactly what was going through her mind.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Cuddy asked.

"I thought I'd save the hospital a bit of money and pay Cameron in other ways. We were just arranging the terms of her new contract." House replied with a smirk.

"Great. In a few thousand years you might have saved the hospital the hundred million dollars you cost us last year." Cuddy quipped.

"That is my aim. I could start paying you too if you like." He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

"Thanks but no thanks." She replied then turned serious. "Have you seen Wilson? I was actually looking for him."

Both Cameron and House shook their heads, House resisting the urge to make a crass comment about why she was looking for Wilson. He could see that she had something serious on her mind and wouldn't enjoy the joke.

Cuddy left the room in search of Wilson again. Cameron took a deep breath and tried to decide whether or not to say what she had actually come in to say. She had just decided not to when she heard her own voice speaking.

"Do you like Chinese food?" She heard herself ask.

House looked like he wondered if it was a trick question.

"Sure. Who doesn't?"

"Great. You'll be home in an hour then? I'll bring the Chinese."

She didn't give him a chance to refuse before walking out of his office, grabbing her stuff and leaving. A quick sideways glance through the glass as she walked past showed that he was still sitting in stunned silence. She smirked to herself and wondered whether he would actually be there when she arrived in an hour.

_Mdmdmd_

House sat in his chair and stared at the spot where Cameron had been standing. Had he heard right? Had she just invited herself around to his house for dinner? For a second he thought about getting insulted at the insinuation he wouldn't have any plans but then snorted to himself in amusement. Anyone who knew him knew that he probably wouldn't have plans; it wasn't really insulting.

But still, she'd invited herself around for dinner. That was, unexpected. House supposed that maybe he should have expected it. This was the woman who set the condition of the two of them going on a date before coming back to work. The woman who said there was nothing he could say or do that would convince her he didn't like her. Kissing her on the beach wasn't exactly going to suggest that he wasn't interested, even if he did follow it up the next day with the suggestion that she date someone else.

After fifteen minutes of sitting in shock he stood up to leave. He briefly considered not going home so that he wouldn't be there when Cameron arrived but quickly decided against it. He still thought she would be better of without him and was still determined not to let anything further happen between them but he couldn't resist the urge to go home and see how this evening played out.

House was sitting on his couch exactly thirty-eight minutes later when the doorbell rang. He got up and walked over to the door, swinging it open.

"You're early. I could have been naked." House said in greeting.

"I'm five minutes early, hardly earth-shattering." Cameron replied stepping into the house. "And who says I would have had a problem with you being naked?" The smirk that played across her face shocked House for a moment, this was a side of Cameron he hadn't seen before but he had to admit that he liked it.

"Touché" House said, leading the way back to the couch.

They both sat down and started eating. Neither could think of anything to say and the silence stretched out. It wasn't an entirely uncomfortable silence but Cameron felt irritated that House would probably use the fact that they had nothing to say to each other as ammunition for why they shouldn't be together.

Suddenly spying the same medical journal she herself had been reading sitting on the floor, Cameron sighed with relief.

"Have you read that article by Vincent Carlisle?" She asked, gesturing towards the journal.

House snorted. "Yeah. It was a supreme waste of time though."

"I know! How does that drivel get published?"

"It's worked on rats and there is no reason why it will not be equally successful on humans." House put on an effeminate voice as he mocked the article. "Total crap." He said, his voice going back to normal.

Cameron couldn't help laughing at his impression. "I don't think he sounds anything like that you know."

"Probably not." House conceded with a grin.

Cameron did a double take seeing his smile but was careful not to let it show on her face. A thrill of excitement shot through her, she knew for certain that she wanted to see that expression on his face a lot more often.

"Should I be expecting a comment about how you could have been published in there if I'd read your article?" House asked, gesturing at the magazine again.

"No. I'm over that I think. Well I'm still mad about it, but more at myself than you."

"What about Foreman? You were practically going around saying he was the devil. You can't forgive him just because he nearly died."

"I didn't forgive him because of that. I just stopped caring about it so much. Next time I won't let him read my article until it's published. And I definitely won't rely on you reading it next time!" The words might have sounded angry if it wasn't for the smile on her face, showing that she was joking.

"Ah learning from your mistakes? That's overly healthy and mature. What'd you do with the Doctor Cameron I hired?" House joked.

Cameron gave a coy smile. "You must be a bad influence on me."

"Bad influence? Good influence if you ask me."

"Lucky I didn't ask you then."

House just raised his eyebrows in response.

Talk turned to medical stuff. An easy couple of hours passed as they discussed various medical treatments and previous patients. Neither mentioned Jay Phillips as neither wanted to spoil the comfortable atmosphere that had developed between them.

As the discussion began to dwindle Cameron became aware of the time and the fact that she should probably be leaving. She didn't want to outstay her welcome, couldn't believe that she had not been kicked out hours ago. She was about to say that she better go when she remembered something.

"Oh! I saw Cuddy and Wilson the other night" She said.

House looked at her. "Oh wow, alert the media!" Was his sarcastic response.

"No, not at work." Cameron said, realising she hadn't explained herself very well. "I saw them out at dinner."

House made a face. "Ah the infamous date"

"Cuddy and Wilson are dating?" Cameron asked.

"No. Wilson thought it was a date. Cuddy thought it was" he paused for a moment "she thought it was just two friends catching up."

"Wilson likes Cuddy?"

"I tried to remind him that she's the devil but he didn't want to listen. He got shot down in the end though and had to come crying to me." House rolled his eyes.

House suddenly stood up and started pacing around the room. Cameron looked at him questioningly.

"My leg's been hurting more than usual. The movement helps." He answered her unasked question.

"Hurting more than usual? Do you know what triggered it?"

House shook his head. "Wilson would say it's psychological. I say he's full of crap."

"Maybe you should get an MRI done. Try and find out what's going on." Cameron suggested.

"No point. I did that last time and it showed nothing. The extra pain passed eventually."

House tried not to think about the fact that Cuddy had given him saline instead of morphine, tricking him into thinking the pain would be gone. He didn't believe that the pain had been brought on by psychological reasons but he had to admit the pain had gone away for psychological reasons. His brain had been convinced it would stop hurting so it did. That wouldn't work again this time though so he'd been taking matters into his own hands. He'd slowly been building up his own personal supply of morphine, not taking enough that anyone would notice it was missing. This time, if the pain got bad enough, he'd self-medicate.

Cameron glanced at her watch. "I should get going."

House nodded and she got up, grabbing her purse. They walked slowly to the door, Cameron wondering if he was going to kiss her and House thinking about whether or not he should. In the end he decided not to and shut the door fairly quickly behind her.

He popped some vicodin and sunk back onto the couch. He berated himself for letting her in tonight. He was just asking for trouble, she would think that something was going to happen between them when he knew it wasn't going to.

_Mdmdmd_

Cameron was disappointed that he didn't kiss her but couldn't let that bother her too much. She was far too elated by the way the evening had gone. They hadn't discussed anything personal but it had been comfortable, like two friends sharing an evening together. That was more than she could have hoped for with House a couple of months ago.

She got in her car and drove home, singing along happily to the stereo. Things were going to be slow with House but she was sure they would eventually work out. She still wasn't sure she would say no to Jay, with House things could change in the blink of an eye. Besides, she still wasn't entirely willing to give up the chance to date the famous heartthrob.

_Mdmdmd_

The next day at work started incredibly slowly. House wasn't there when Cameron, Chase and Foreman arrived which wasn't a surprise. It was surprising that two hours later he still wasn't there.

Cuddy appeared looking for him and Cameron reluctantly admitted that they hadn't seen him yet that morning. Cuddy looked annoyed and thrust a file at them.

"Read over that. It's your new patient." Cuddy told the three of them.

They all looked at her curiously, doubting that she'd be able to get House to take on this case as easily as she'd convinced him with Jay Phillips' case. It seemed that she knew exactly what they were thinking though.

"He'll take it. Apparently the father of the girl is a friend of his." She said.

"He has friends?" Chase asked.

"Yes, it surprised me too." Cuddy replied. "I'll go and give him a call. You guys read over that and start on the differential."

_Mdmdmd_

House arrived in a worse mood than normal. He had been about to inject himself with morphine when Cuddy's call had interrupted him. The pain in his leg was getting unbearable but he wouldn't have been able to function if he'd taken the morphine. So instead he'd come in, in pain but at least his mind was functional.

After hearing from Cuddy what was wrong with the girl and talking to Crandall, the man the girl was pretending was her father, he headed to the diagnostics department to discuss the differential with his team.

Half a day of testing and retesting later they still hadn't come up with the answer. House had taken Vicodin but was still in a lot of pain. He wondered if maybe he should have just taken the morphine and to hell with the consequences.

As his team sat in the conference room trying to come up with a diagnosis he was forced to keep pacing the hall, only coming into the room when he had a thought. He couldn't sit still, it was too uncomfortable. Chase and Foreman both gave him weird looks at first but he figured Cameron must have told them his leg was hurting and that the movement helped because the second time he came in to suggest something they didn't seem so surprised.

As the day continued to progress with no clues as to what was wrong with their patient House knew he was going to have to head down to the clinic. He was already way overdue down there this week and probably shouldn't put it off any longer. The idea of clinic duty was less appealing than ever with his leg causing him so much pain.

He was also thinking about Cuddy's situation. He thought she was making a terrible mistake and wanted to come up with a way to tell her that. He understood that she wanted children but didn't think a sperm donor was the way to go. He knew she was surprised that he was being so sympathetic about it, she had expected him to tell people. Had even asked him if he'd told anyone, specifically mentioning Cameron, which probably meant she thought there was more to that little scene in his office the day before than there had been. House had no intention of telling anyone though, not even Wilson. He was an ass most of the time but he did secretly consider Cuddy a friend and didn't want to betray her trust.

His mind turned back to the clinic duty he should now be doing and he came up with a plan. He paged Cameron who was off assisting Chase with some tests and paced his office as he waited. He didn't have to wait long, less than three minutes after sending the page she was walking into his office.

"You paged?" She said as she came through the door.

"I need you take my clinic hours for me."

"What about the tests for Leona?"

"Chase and Foreman can handle them. I'm already way overdue for clinic this week. I doubt Cuddy will let me leave today unless I've done a couple of hours down there."

"So instead of just sneaking away early like you usually would you're going to send me down there?"

"Yep. Last time I tried to sneak away she caught me, tied me up and performed unspeakable acts on me. I'm still traumatised."

"Here's an idea. Why don't you do the clinic duty yourself?"

"Nope, not an option. My leg's too sore."

Cameron raised her eyebrows at him and tried to ascertain whether or not his leg really was too sore. She knew that she'd give in and do the clinic duty for him so it didn't really matter, he was her boss so technically he could just order her down there and not give her a choice. But she was enjoying the friendly banter with him at the moment so didn't want to give in too quickly.

His next words made her happy she hadn't agreed straight away. He clearly thought she was going to refuse so thought he needed to sweeten the deal.

"If you take my clinic hours for the rest of the day I'll let you buy me dinner again tonight."

"You are just too generous. How could I possibly refuse such a fantastic deal." Cameron's tone was sarcastic but she grinned at him and left the room, heading to the clinic.

House sighed as he watched her leave. He just seemed to keep compounding this problem of leading her on but he couldn't help himself. He was going to have to make a real effort to regain some self-control and put things back to the way they used to be. He thought about the other patient they had, the one who had been correctly diagnosed and was, apparently recovering nicely. He decided to go and pay Jay a visit.

Jay was watching TV when House arrived and seemed relieved to have some company, even if it was the acerbic doctor.

"Dr House right?" Jay asked, recognising his doctor from comments he'd heard since he'd been here.

"My reputation precedes me I see." House replied.

"Yeah, the cane sorta gave you away."

House was tired of pleasantries. "I hear you asked Doctor Cameron out."

Jay looked surprised but nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"I just wondered if you were still going to do that." House replied.

"Well that's the plan. She didn't actually say yes when I asked her though. Does she have a boyfriend?"

"Oh c'mon, you're famous, as though you believe any woman would say no to you. Would it even matter to you if she was seeing someone?"

"Of course it would matter!"

"Well she's not seeing anyone so you don't have to worry about that."

Jay's face lit up and he grinned. "Cool. I'll ask her again when I get released then." He paused. "When will that be by the way? I feel fine."

"In a couple of days." House said, already half-way out the door. He didn't want to stay and make idle chit-chat now that his plan had been successful. Jay would ask Cameron out again, she'd say yes and would leave him alone. He ignored the slight pang in his chest that reverberated down his injured leg at the thought of her going out with someone else.

_Mdmdmd_

Cameron hummed to herself as she grabbed a patient file and headed into one of the clinic rooms. She had another date with House, it seemed like things were progressing nicely. She wondered if they should go out for dinner or go around to his house with takeaways again.

She got through a couple of patients as she mulled over the options. She liked the idea of going out and having a proper meal, that felt like a real date. On the other hand it reminded her of their disastrous date and she didn't want him to also be reminded of that. Maybe dinner at home would be better.

Also, home would mean closer proximity to the bedroom and she had definite plans of wanting to get him in that direction sometime soon. She suddenly realised she wasn't paying any attention to what the patient was saying to her and quickly focused her attention back on him, pushing thoughts of House to the side for a minute.

By the time five o'clock rolled around she had decided takeaways at House's place would be better than going out. If his leg was hurting him as much as he said it was then a restaurant would be uncomfortable for him and would probably just put him in a bad mood.

She headed to his office to find out what the outcome with Leona had been, if there had been one. The conference room was deserted but she could see that House was in his office listening to music. She wandered in there.

"What happened with Leona?" she asked.

"Crandall's not a marrow match. We're just waiting to find one. We'll start the radiation tomorrow."

"Where are Chase and Foreman?" She asked, glancing towards the empty conference room

"They left about ten minutes ago." He switched the music off and got to his feet. "So, what's for dinner?"

"What, I'm actually allowed to choose as well as pay for it? You really are too kind." Cameron replied.

"I know. So what's it to be?" he asked, turning the light off as they left the room.

"I thought maybe just get something to eat at your house again. With your leg hurting I didn't think you'd want to go to a restaurant."

House nodded. "My place sounds good. So does pizza."

"Hey, I thought I got to decide!"

"You do, I'm just throwing suggestions out there. Feel free to turn them down. Of course if you don't bring pizza I won't let you in. But really, it's totally up to you."

Cameron grinned. "Pizza it is."

They reached House's bike. "I'll order it when I get home then. What sort do you want?" He hooked his cane onto his bike and got on the bike as he was speaking.

"Anything with meat." Cameron replied.

House nodded and pulled his helmet on. Cameron walked the short distance from his bike to her car and unlocked the door. She glanced up and watched his retreating form ride out of the parking lot.

A short while later she pulled up outside House's townhouse. She had come straight here, but being on a bike House would probably have beaten her by at least five minutes. She started to knock on the door but stopped when she saw it was slightly open for her. She stepped inside and looked around. House was on the phone ordering the pizza and nodded a greeting at her. He indicated towards the couch and she took that to mean she should sit down.

She sat and looked through his DVD collection. She noticed The Godfather and pulled it out. This was one of her favourite movies and she liked that he had it in his collection. He walked up and noticed it in her hand.

"Have you seen it?" He asked.

"Of course! It's one of my favourite films. I love it."

House nodded his approval. "We can watch it if you want."

Cameron thought about it and decided it was probably best to watch a movie. If they couldn't think of anything to say to each other then House was sure to run scared. This way they'd be saved from any potential awkwardness.

"Yeah sure." She replied.

House took it off her and was about to put it in the machine when they heard a key in the lock. Cameron looked startled but House knew exactly who it was.

"Wilson." He said in explanation, a second before Wilson came into view.

"Remind me why you still have a key when you don't live here anymore." House grumped.

"It's not my fault you didn't…" Wilson began then trailed off when he saw Cameron sitting on the couch.

"Cameron?" He asked, confused.

"Hi, Wilson." Cameron replied.

"Oh ignore that, it's just my blow-up doll." House said

"What are you doing here?" Wilson asked, ignoring House.

"Well we were about to eat dinner. And no, there isn't enough for you." House answered for her.

Wilson looked around, wondering if by some miracle House had cooked and also wondering if he'd somehow stepped into a parallel universe.

"Pizza." Cameron supplied.

"Oh right. Well I guess I'll go then." Wilson replied. He desperately wanted to get House alone so he could ask what was going on but couldn't think of a good excuse to do it.

"Uh. I guess I'll see you both tomorrow then." He said as he opened the door.

"Uh-huh" House replied.

"Bye" Cameron called as the door closed.

House and Cameron exchanged a look and Cameron grinned.

"You'll have a lot of questions to answer tomorrow." Cameron said.

"And I won't answer a single one of them. That's what he gets for using his key." House replied.

He put the bent down and put the DVD on. Cameron got up to answer the door twenty minutes later when the pizza arrived, marveling at the fact that she felt comfortable enough to answer House's door.

The evening was fun and when the DVD ended Cameron felt a huge sense of disappointment. She knew she should probably go but she didn't want to. They talked inconsequentially for a few minutes about the film then House dropped a bombshell on her.

"I spoke to Jay Phillips today." He said.

"Oh?" Cameron replied, wondering where this was leading.

"He's going to be released in a couple of days. He said he's going to ask you out again before he leaves."

"And he just told you this when you dropped by to visit him?" Cameron was suspicious and knew she was either going to really like where this conversation was leading or really hate it.

"Yeah. He was asking me if you were seeing anyone. Said he didn't want to step on any toes."

"And your reply was?" Cameron held her breath waiting for his answer.

"That you're not. I figured that was the correct answer since if you were seeing someone I'm sure you wouldn't have been around here the last two nights."

Cameron gave House a long look. He stared back at her, unfazed. She could see that he knew exactly what he was saying and that it was very deliberate. She nodded, trying to ignore the disappointment that twisted in her stomach.

"That's true." She said. "This'll give me something to brag to my friends about, going out with a celebrity."

"It'll make Chase jealous." House said.

"Chase? Oh does he like Jay?" Cameron replied, joking to cover up the hurt she was feeling. She could see that House didn't buy it but he didn't call her on it.

"I'm pretty sure he does from the way he acted the first time the guy asked you out. I thought he was going to throw a tantrum."

"I think he's just being protective." Cameron told him.

"I doubt it. But if that's what you want to believe." House shrugged.

"It is what I believe. Anyway I better get going." She stood up and walked to the door. "See you in the morning House."

"Yeah." Was all that he replied.

She walked out the door, leaving him sitting alone on his couch wondering if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life but unwilling to go after her and tell her what he really felt.


	4. Chapter 4

_Here's the next chapter. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed. I'm glad people are enjoying it. I lack a lot of confidence in my writing so it is good to know that some people like it. I've written quite a lot of the next chapter so hopefully this time the wait won't be quite as long. Please read and review. Constructive criticism is welcome. And complements are VERY welcome! Oh and I should point out that I'm from New Zealand and so is my spelling._

House limped over to his piano not long after Cameron left. He began to play and tried to lose himself in the music but couldn't seem to manage it. His thoughts were drifting everywhere. Since when did he let a woman get him so riled up? No-one had before, no-one except Stacey.

Thinking about Stacey made him wonder how she and Mark were doing. He hoped they were doing ok, was surprised with himself for hoping that. He still felt a small amount of guilt for pursuing her and encouraging her to leave Mark then at the last moment backing out. He snorted to himself with amusement when he realised he felt guilty and actually cared whether or not they were happy. Maybe he was growing; Wilson would sure think so if he ever admitted it.

His thoughts moved to Crandall and Leona. He was convinced she wasn't his daughter and was just using him. He couldn't understand how Crandall could mind not knowing for sure. If it were him he'd want the truth, no matter what the cost.

He growled to himself and began to play faster. He didn't want to be thinking right now but couldn't seem to get his mind to stop. His fingers flew across the keys as he played faster and faster. Music filled the room and drowned out all possible thought as he sped up the tempo.

Mdmdmd 

Late the following afternoon, after Leona had finally been correctly diagnosed, House was limping past a hospital room when he heard Cameron's voice. He stopped and backed up a bit. He realised it was Jay Phillip's room. Something tugged at his gut. The thought that Cameron had moved on pretty eagerly to Jay came unbidden into his mind. Logically he knew that he had told her to go out with him, but when it came to Cameron logic usually seemed to abandon him. He strained to hear what was being said, hidden just out of sight of Jay's room.

"I didn't know what to say so I just smiled at her and nodded along like it was the most normal thing in the world to be telling a perfect stranger about your husband's bowel habits." Jay was saying.

House heard Cameron laugh and his gut twisted again.

"I guess that's something you have to suffer as an actor huh? People forgetting that you are an actor, not actually the characters you play." Cameron said.

"Yeah. Being a real doctor, not just someone who pretended to be one for a film, I guess people probably talk to you about their husband's bowel movements a lot?"

"Well I have to admit that whenever I meet new people and tell them I'm a doctor they will immediately start listing symptoms at me. It seems like everyone's got something wrong with them that they haven't bothered to go to their doctor about."

There was a brief pause in the conversation then Jay spoke again.

"So, about this date?" Jay began. "Am I going to be able to convince you to come out with me?"

"Oh I think you will probably be able to." Cameron replied.

House fought the urge to run in there, hit Jay over the head with his cane and tell Cameron not to go. This was what he wanted wasn't it, for Cameron to move on?

"Great! I'm being discharged tomorrow right? So how does tomorrow night sound to you?" Jay asked.

"Are you sure that won't be too soon for you? You might not feel up to going out after just being released from hospital." Cameron slipped into doctor mode for a moment.

"Are you kidding? Going out is exactly what I'll feel like doing after being cooped up in bed for so long. And who better to go out with than a beautiful doctor."

"Well, if you're sure then I'd love to go out tomorrow."

"Sure I'm sure. I know this great little place. You'll love it. I'll pick you up at seven-thirty." Jay paused for a moment. "Uh, I'll need your address."

Cameron laughed "I'll write it down for you then I better get back to work. I've got some paperwork I need to complete before I leave for the day."

House took this as his cue to leave and quickly limped away back down the hall. Two minutes later when Cameron walked past his office he was sitting in his chair, seemingly intent on the game in his hands.

Cameron left soon after, without saying goodbye to House. Once she was gone he put down his game and started thoughtfully at the ceiling. She had barely spoken to him all day, hadn't even asked him how his leg was. He knew he shouldn't be surprised after pushing her away last night but he still was. He didn't like it.

He was just about to get up to leave when Cuddy walked into the room.

"I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee or something? On me. As a thank-you for not being more sarcastic about this whole sperm-donor thing." She said to him.

"Are you kidding? The chance to feel you up each day without getting yelled at? I should be thanking you!" Was House's reply.

Cuddy rolled her eyes. "Thanking you for not being too sarcastic was not an invitation to make a sarcastic comment you know."

"Actually, I think every time anyone opens their mouth it's an invitation to make a sarcastic comment. Otherwise why would they bother to say such stupid things?"

"Is that a no to the coffee?" Cuddy asked.

"I'll take a rain check. For now I'm just going to head home."

Cuddy eyed him for a moment then slowly nodded her head. It was clear to her that something was bothering House but if he didn't want to talk about it she wasn't going to push it. She decided she'd stop by Wilson's office and mention it to him. Then he could do the pushing.

Mdmdmd

The moment House stepped through his front door his eyes fell on the box containing the morphine he'd been pilfering from the hospital. He'd hidden it back on a shelf before Cameron arrived the night before but now his eyes slid straight to it. The pain had not gone away from his leg, if anything it was now worse than it was the day before.

It didn't take him much thought before he walked over to the box and took the syringe out. He sat down on the couch and slowly injected himself, enjoying the cool feeling of the morphine travelling through his blood stream. He lay back and picked up the piece of paper that confirmed Leona was not Crandall's daughter. It felt good to be right.

He heard the machine click on and Wilson's voice come through; was surprised when Wilson said he'd see him on Monday. Did that mean he wasn't coming over for his usual Saturday morning ritual tomorrow? He probably assumed House had something planned with Cameron. That would be a typical Wilson thought, just because he saw her at his place once he'd assume they were now a couple. That was idiotic; he should know House better than that.

House didn't like the painful place his thoughts were taking him, any thoughts to do with Cameron were unwelcome. He put the piece of paper down and closed his eyes. In moments the morphine took the pain away, thankfully that included the mental pain.

Mdmdmd

House growled to himself and checked his watch. Five o'clock. Cameron would probably be getting ready for her date with Jay now. Didn't girls always take a few hours to get ready?

He wondered, for about the hundredth time in the last three minutes, what he was doing here. If she glanced out her window and saw him standing outside she would think he had turned into a stalker. He turned towards his bike, determined to just drive away and forget that she was going out with Jay. It didn't matter to him anyway; she could go out with whoever she wanted.

Instead of getting on his bike and riding away he found himself turning back around and walking towards her door. He continued to ask himself what the hell he was doing but didn't seem to be able to make his legs cooperate with his brain. He reached her door and lifted his cane, knocking wood against wood.

His mind was screaming at him to turn and walk away. Then suddenly it was too late. The door was opening and there was Cameron. She was wearing a white fluffy bathrobe and her hair was damp, she'd probably only been out of the shower a few minutes. A look of confusion and surprise passed over her face.

"House? What are you doing here?"

House couldn't seem to make his mouth work, couldn't think of what to answer her. Instead his body finally complied with his mind and he turned, about to walk away.

"House, is everything okay?" The concern in Cameron's voice stilled his body and he turned back towards her.

Afterwards he couldn't remember any conscious thought that provoked him; didn't know how it happened. He took a step towards her, then another, closing the gap between them completely. Then they were kissing. He slid his tongue into her mouth and felt the blood pound in his ears when she returned his kiss eagerly.

His cane dropped to the floor and Cameron must have kicked the door closed because he heard it bang behind him. Without his cane to support him he wasn't completely stable and leaned back against the now closed door for support, pulling Cameron with him.

He could feel her hands pulling at his t-shirt; lifting it up. Her hands slipped under it and were on his skin, rubbing up and down his back. Conscious thought was barely possible as he slid a hand inside her robe. When his hand came into contact with skin, confirming that she didn't have a lot on under that robe, he couldn't stop the moan that escaped his lips.

He slid his hand up to her breasts and as he cupped one, rubbing his thumb over the nipple, it was Cameron who couldn't stop the moan. She leaned closer to him, allowing him easier access. Her hands slid from their position on his back down to his jeans. She started trying to undo them but couldn't get the belt undone. A growl of frustration and she gave up. House just about shot through the roof when instead of continuing to try and get the belt undone she slid her hands down inside his jeans and boxer shorts, taking him in her hand.

His leg was killing him and he knew he wasn't going to be able to stand up much longer, even with the door for support. He pulled back from Cameron slightly.

"My leg." He said in explanation, embarrassed and angry that his disability was so obvious right now.

Cameron didn't react to his words and leaned forward to kiss him again. Sliding her hands out from their position inside his jeans she guided him slowly towards the couch, letting him lean heavily on her. They reached the couch and he sat down, trying to pull her with him but she didn't budge.

House looked up at her from his position on the couch and saw the desire and lust in her eyes. He watched as her hands slid up to her shoulders and began to remove the robe, her eyes never leaving his. She let it fall to the floor and once again House just about went through the roof when he saw that she wasn't wearing anything underneath. He let his eyes roam over her body, marvelling at what he saw.

He grabbed at her and pulled her down towards him. This time she came willingly and moaned as he assaulted her mouth. His lips moved down, pausing to nibble on the soft skin of her neck. Her smell invaded his nostrils and he couldn't think of any reason that he had not spent his entire life with this woman just doing this. His lips continued to trail their path down and as he reached her breasts he heard her breathe out his name.

Her hands again began to try and undo his belt. When she didn't have any more luck than last time House took pity on her. He paused in his ministrations and undid his belt, slipping his jeans and boxer shorts off. Cameron tugged at his t-shirt, bringing it up over his head.

She rolled him over so that she was hovering above him, being careful not to bump or lean on his bad leg. She leaned down and kissed him again, letting her breasts rub over his bare chest. He reached his hands up and ran them all over her body, wanting to learn every inch of her. He could feel the blood pumping through his veins and knew he needed her now. He wasn't going to last much longer, she was just too intoxicating.

Sensing his need, or maybe giving in to her own, Cameron lifted herself up and started to position herself over him. Conscious thought suddenly prevailed and she paused, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Uh. Do you have anything? Uh. I mean a condom."

He nodded, struggling to get his breath back and feeling relief at the pause, which would give him some time to get a grip on himself.

"In my wallet, in my jeans."

Cameron leaned over to his jeans and pulled the wallet out. She held it out to him and he fumbled through it, finding the condom and dropping the wallet back to the floor.

House ripped open the foil pack and slid the condom on. He pulled her head back towards him and kissed her again, using his hands to fondle her breasts. She moved back into position and slid herself down onto him. Both gasped as he entered her and House struggled not to lose control.

They began to move in time, moaning and breathing each other's names. House knew that he was near breaking point, he couldn't hold out much longer. Just as he was about to give in he felt Cameron tighten around him and his name on her lips got louder. He breathed a sigh of relief and let himself go.

Cameron collapsed on top of him, even in her sated state being careful of his damaged leg. They lay like that for a few minutes, basking in the afterglow and trying to avoid letting their thoughts slip to the reality of what had just happened.

Cameron was the first to move. She lifted her head and stared into House's bright blue eyes before capturing his lips in a soft kiss. She pulled away and sat up, reaching for her robe.

House watched, not moving, as she covered herself up. He wondered what was coming next.

"What's the time?" Cameron asked, breaking the silence that had descended upon them. She reached for his wrist and turned it so she could see his watch.

"Five forty-five. I better finish getting ready. Looks like I'm going to need to shower again." She continued.

House looked at her in disbelief. "You're still going out with Jay?"

Cameron didn't look at him as she replied. "Is there any reason I shouldn't?"

The silence stretched out as House tried to decide what to say. He knew the answer she was looking for. Knew she wanted him to tell her that he was the reason she shouldn't go out with Jay. Most of him wanted to say exactly that. But there was still that part of him that was arguing that he should get up and walk out the door right now and never look back.

Cameron turned her green eyes to look at him, searching his face for some hint at what he was thinking.

"That's what I thought" she said softly.

She stood up and walked away, towards the bathroom House assumed. "I'll see you Monday, House."

House didn't move from where he lay on the couch, watching her walk away. The situation was out of control and he had no idea what to do about it. Anger and jealousy were coursing through him but still he did nothing to stop Cameron.

She turned around and looked at him when she reached a door. "Give me a call if you think of a reason."

With that she opened the door and disappeared inside. Seconds later he heard the sound of a shower starting. With a groan he sat up, his leg was not impressed with the activity that had just been going on and was not hesitating to make that known. He reached for his jeans and popped a couple of Vicodin into his mouth. It didn't take him long to get dressed and dispose of the condom. With a final look at the closed bathroom door he left.

_Mdmdmd_

Cameron heard the front door close and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the door. She hadn't wanted him to leave, could have stayed lying in his arms forever. Telling him she was still going on the date was the only way she could think of to protect herself. She didn't think he would suddenly decide they should be in a relationship, was pretty sure he had only turned up tonight because she was going out with Jay. Though how he knew her date was tonight she didn't know.

Opening her eyes she pulled across the shower curtain and stepped in. She had turned it on when she walked into the room but hadn't got in. Instead she had stayed by the door listening to House move about and eventually leave.

She cursed herself for sleeping with him. It was going to make it harder for her in the long run. She hoped he didn't think she was playing games with him because that definitely wasn't her intention. Her only real intention in sending him away was self-preservation; the need to make sure this crush on her boss didn't turn into her falling in love with him when it was doubtful he had the capacity to feel the same way about her.

After her shower she slowly finished getting ready for her date. She tried hard to bring back the excited feeling of anticipation about going out with a famous movie-star that she had been feeling before House's arrival. It was nearly impossible though, her mind kept slipping to House and how good it had felt to kiss him. How good he felt inside her. How right it felt.

At twenty-five past seven there was a knock at her door. Cameron checked herself one final time in the mirror and, satisfied with what she saw, walked to the door. She swung it open and caught her breath when she saw Jay standing there, all thoughts of House were washed from her mind. This man was unbelievably good-looking. He was dressed in a coal black suit, his forest green shirt making his eyes look almost unnaturally green. His dark hair was spiked up slightly in that messy but actually took a lot of work kind of way.

He quirked a grin at her.

"Allison, you look amazing." He said.

"Thank you. So do you." She replied after a moment when she found her voice.

He held an arm out to her. "Shall we go?"

She slipped her arm through his and they walked outside. Sitting there was a huge black stretch limo with the driver holding the door open for them.

Cameron slipped inside and looked around the limo in fascination. She had never been in a stretch limo before. For her wedding her and Luke had travelled in standard limos but they had nothing on this one.

Jay got in beside her and smiled at her awe.

"I remember feeling the way you look now the first time I travelled in one of these." He said as they began to drive. "You get used to it though."

Cameron glanced at him. "I don't think I could ever get used to this."

A slightly embarrassed look came over Jay's face. The look relaxed Cameron a bit; it made Jay seem more human somehow.

"I get to travel in them a lot. You're expected to turn up in a fancy car driven by someone else to all the premieres and big parties."

He reached into the mini-fridge and pulled out a bottle of champagne, pouring them each a glass.

Conversation for the remainder of the drive was easy-going and friendly. Jay asked Cameron plenty of questions about herself. Cameron was happy to answer all his questions, she was quite surprised that he didn't spend the whole time talking about himself. She had expected him to be very full of himself.

Soon the car started to pull over and when it came to a stop the driver came around and opened the door to let Cameron and Jay out. Cameron emerged from the car first and was shocked by the sheer number of people standing staring at her. When Jay got out behind her the crowd started screaming and surging forwards towards them.

Out of nowhere four heavyset men in dark suits appeared and kept the crowd at bay. Jay turned to Cameron apologetically, that slightly embarrassed look from earlier back on his face.

"Sorry about this, I should have warned you." He apologised.

"How did all these people know we were going to be here?" Cameron asked.

"They didn't. They would have seen the limo pull up and crowded around to see who it belonged to. Just give me a couple of minutes to sign some autographs and we'll head inside."

Cameron watched in admiration as Jay plastered a smile on his face and began signing autographs and even posing for pictures. You would never guess from watching him that he held any annoyance over being interrupted on his date. Cameron couldn't help comparing his actions to the way she knew House would act in the same situation. He wouldn't be patiently signing autographs, everyone would know exactly how annoyed he was at the situation. It wouldn't surprise her terribly if he started hitting people with his cane to clear a path to the restaurant.

After about ten minutes Jay and Cameron managed to get into the restaurant and get seated.

"So that happens to you a lot?" Cameron asked.

"Yeah. I am sorry I didn't warn you. This is a restaurant a lot of celebrities come to so there always tends to be a crowd out there, particularly on a Saturday night, waiting to see who is going to turn up."

Cameron smiled. "It's alright. I should have expected it, going on a date with a celebrity."

"I don't think anyone can be prepared for quite what it's like until they've been there. But thanks."

"Are there going to be photos of me and incriminating headlines in the papers tomorrow?" Cameron couldn't help joking.

Jay cringed. "I wouldn't be surprised. I saw a couple of paparazzi out there."

"Oh." Cameron couldn't think of a good reply.

There was a short uncomfortable silence which both tried to ignore by studying their menus. After a couple of minutes Jay glanced up at Cameron.

"Are you ready to order?"

"Yes I think so."

Jay nodded and signalled the waiter who came over promptly and took their orders.

"So, how are you feeling? Is it good to be out of hospital?" Cameron asked.

Jay leaned back in his chair. "So good it's unbelievable. I was going a bit stir-crazy in there with nothing to do."

The awkwardness of their arrival disappeared and the two of them slipped back into comfortable conversation. Their meals arrived and they began to eat.

Cameron was just contemplating the answer to a question Jay had asked when she noticed a girl of about twelve at a nearby table staring longingly at Jay. She smiled at the reminder of her youth and the thought of how excited she would have been if she had seen one of her idols in a restaurant.

Jay noticed her smile and looked at her questioningly.

"There's a little girl over there staring at you. It just reminded me of when I was young and had crushes on celebrities." Cameron explained.

Jay raised an eyebrow. "You mean you don't have crushes on celebrities anymore?" He affected a wounded look. "I guess I'm not trying hard enough then!"

Cameron laughed and Jay smiled at her.

"If possible you look even more beautiful when you laugh." He said. His green eyes sparkled with desire before he tore his eyes off hers and looked down at her food. "Now eat up. The dessert here is not to be missed."

Cameron looked at her food as well. "I don't think I'm going to have room for dessert."

"Nonsense. There's always room for dessert!"

At that moment a waiter emerged with a cake and headed for the table of the girl who had been staring at Jay was sitting at. The other people at her table began to sing happy birthday to her. Other people in the restaurant looked over and joined in, including Jay and Cameron.

Everyone clapped when the girl blew out her candles, before going back to their own meals and conversations.

"Seeing you here was probably the best birthday present that girl received." Cameron couldn't help commenting.

Jay shrugged noncommittally then looked thoughtful. "Excuse me for a moment. I'm just going to be incredibly rude and send a text message." He said and pulled out his phone.

Once he had finished they went back to their conversation. Jay began telling her about his upcoming movie. A couple of minutes later one of the heavyset men from earlier walked into the restaurant. Cameron assumed he was one of Jay's bodyguards. He walked over to their table.

"Excuse me Mr Phillips." He said.

Jay looked up and took the DVD and marker pen the bodyguard was holding out to him and smiled.

"Thank you William." He said. The bodyguard nodded and left the restaurant again.

"Excuse me a minute Allison." Jay said and stood up. He walked over to the girl's table and knelt down beside her. Cameron watched as he spoke to her and the girl's eyes went wide. She said something back to Jay and he put the DVD on the table and wrote something on it before handing it to the girl. He then held out his hand to her and she shook it, eyes still wide.

Jay turned and came back to their table. Cameron couldn't help the smile that had plastered itself on her face as she watched the scene.

"That was really sweet." She said to him. "That definitely would have made that girl's day."

"Some actors seem to hate their fans. I don't know why though. Without fans we wouldn't have jobs. It gets a bit annoying sometimes to be recognised everywhere I go but I just try to remember how I felt when I was a kid and went to a baseball game. I idolised those guys."

"Well I think it's amazing. It's a pity more celebrities don't feel like that."

Jay shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with the praise, and changed the subject. "So where are we at with the dessert? Am I going to be able to convince you?"

Cameron shook her head. "I really couldn't fit it in."

"We'll see. I bet when you see how good mine looks you'll change your mind. But you're in luck because I'm a nice guy and I might just share some of mine with you!" He signalled the waiter over again and ordered the chocolate gateau and two forks."

"I'm really not going to eat any." Cameron insisted.

"Who said the second fork was for you?" Jay laughed.

However when the gateau arrived he held the other fork out to her.

"Hold onto it, just in case."

Cameron took the fork and watched him eat for a few seconds. Jay laughed at her when she tentatively reached forward to try some.

"Told you that you wouldn't be able to resist."

Cameron laughed and helped herself to some more; it really was delicious.

Her thoughts slipped for a minute to a conversation she'd had with House when Foreman had been sick. She'd been trying to impress upon him that she wasn't sick and asked him if she looked happy to him. His response had been 'never'. Right now she realised how right he was. She didn't think she had laughed as much since Luke died as she had tonight, with Jay.

She contemplated that for a minute before admitting to herself that while she was enjoying herself immensely and laughing a lot more than usual she didn't feel as happy as she did the evenings she had spent with House. With House a feeling of warmth filled her and she felt complete. Jay was amusing and made her laugh, but he didn't give her that feeling that there was nothing better in the world than just sitting with him. House did give her that feeling.

"Earth to Allison." Jay was waving his hand in front of her face.

She snapped back to reality and blushed slightly.

"Oh sorry. I was just thinking about something."

"I could see that. You were away with the fairies. Are you okay? You had a kind of wistful look on your face." Jay asked, concern tingeing his voice.

"I'm fine. I was just thinking that I haven't laughed this much since my husband died." Cameron said, leaving out that she had mostly been thinking about House. She sent up a silent apology to Luke for using him to cover her real thoughts.

Jay reached over and took her hand. "I'm glad you're having a good time."

Cameron smiled at him and reached out her fork to steal a bit more of the gateau.

mdmdmd

After they were finished eating Cameron and Jay headed back to the limo. They slowly cruised back to Cameron's house. Once there Jay came up to the door with her, it was very obvious he wanted to be invited in but was too gentlemanly to insist

"Do you want to come in for coffee?" She asked, deciding that she didn't really want this evening to end so soon.

Jay flashed a heart-stopping grin at her and nodded.

"Sure." He replied.

They walked inside and Jay looked around.

"This is a nice place." He commented.

"Not up to your usual standard I'd expect." Cameron replied.

"I hope I haven't come across as a rich, arrogant idiot tonight Allison." Jay began. "I know I have a lot of money but I didn't come from a rich family and I hope it's not something I ever take for granted."

Cameron felt ashamed of herself. He hadn't seemed at all like he thought he was above her just because he was famous. If anything he'd come across as a regular guy. She had just been feeling defensive, knowing that her apartment would be tiny compared with where he probably lived.

"Sorry Jay. I don't know why I said that." She told him sincerely.

"Not a problem." He said, although she thought she still detected a hint of hurt in his eyes.

"Make yourself comfortable. I'll go and put the coffee on."

She walked into the kitchen and set about making coffee for the two of them. When she returned a couple of minutes later she saw that Jay was sitting on the couch. She had the horrible realisation that he was sitting exactly where she and House had made love that afternoon and wanted to tell him to move. There was no way she could do that without making herself look like an idiot so she didn't say anything. She couldn't bring herself to sit there with him though and instead handed him his coffee and chose to sit on the chair next to the couch.

"I won't bite you know." Jay said when she didn't sit with him.

Cameron felt a blush rise up her cheeks. "I know. I just thought I'd sit here." She said lamely.

They sipped their coffees in silence. Cameron started to wish she hadn't invited him in. It was obvious where he expected this to lead and she couldn't do it. Not when she'd only been with House that very afternoon.

Jay finished his coffee with very little being said between them. He stood up.

"Well I guess I'll head off then. I had a good time tonight Allison, I hope we can do it again sometime."

Cameron stood up too, to show him out.

"I had a good time too. Thank you so much for dinner."

They walked towards the door and when they reached it Jay turned around and kissed her. She was shocked for a moment but quickly recovered and returned his kiss. When he tried to deepen it and started to move his hand up to her breast she pulled away.

"I'm sorry Jay. I can't." she said.

"Why not?" He asked.

Cameron was surprised. She had been expecting him to say that he understood, not to ask her why.

"Um. It's too soon. I barely know you." She said for lack of a better reason.

Jay grinned. "Pity. It would have been great!" He joked. At least Cameron thought he was joking.

Seeing that she was uncomfortable he swiftly changed tacks.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. You're a beautiful woman and I'm not used to woman saying no to me." He flashed a self-depreciating smile. "I guess in that respect I have become an arrogant idiot."

"No, it's ok" Cameron rushed to defend him.

"Don't worry about it Allison, it's fine." He paused. "Listen, I'm away for the next six months filming but I'd love to catch up when I'm back."

"Don't feel you have to. In six months time I'm sure you'll have met someone else." She replied.

Jay nodded. "Probably. But that doesn't mean I won't want to catch up with you. If nothing else I'd like to be friends."

Cameron was a bit taken aback at that response. She had been expecting him to deny that he would have met someone else. She wouldn't have believed him but she still expected him to say it.

"Goodbye Allison." He said and opened the door.

"Bye." Was all she could reply as she watched him walk outside. She was proud of herself for turning him down. It would have been easy not to. She did wonder if she was an idiot though. How many single women would turn down the opportunity to sleep with a sexy film star? She closed the door and sighed. It was too late now even if she wanted to change her mind, which she was pretty sure she didn't.

_Mdmdmd_

On Monday morning Cameron was again the first one to arrive at the hospital. She put the coffee on and wondered if they'd get a patient. Part of her hoped not, she didn't want to be forced to spend a lot of time with House if it was going to be uncomfortable between them.

Chase and Foreman arrived together and both greeted Cameron.

"Have a good weekend?" Chase asked her as he helped himself to the coffee.

"Not so bad. You?" She replied.

"Yeah, pretty good. Some friends were over Aussie so I spend the weekend with them." Chase replied.

A bit more idle chit-chat followed before House walked in. Cameron's heart flip-flopped when she saw him and she cursed herself. Looked like the crush was back full force.

All three fellows were shocked that he was here so early, it was barely past nine o'clock. House came limping into the conference room and threw a magazine on the table. Chase and Foreman looked at him questioningly but Cameron had the slightly sick feeling that she knew what was coming. The magazine was the most recent copy of a very gossipy women's magazine.

"Our little Cameron's famous." House said. His blue eyes connected with hers and she could see the hurt there for an instant before they became shuttered again.

Chase grabbed the magazine and started flicking through it. "You're in this?" He asked Cameron, surprise in his voice.

"Page thirty-two." House supplied and Chase turned to the correct page.

Cameron snatched the magazine off him. "Let me see that."

On the page there was a small picture of her and Jay exiting the limo at the restaurant. The write-up didn't say anything substantial just listed her as an unknown that was looking very cosy with Jay Phillips on Saturday evening.

Chase snatched the magazine back. "Hey! I was looking at it. Wait your turn." He studied it then looked up at her. "So you went on the date huh?"

Foreman took his turn to look at the magazine. "With Jay Phillips? What was it like to go out with a movie star?" He asked. Cameron had the urge to laugh. He sounded just like a teenage girl.

"Just like a normal date." She admitted. "But more people looked at us and people kept asking him for his autograph."

"Probably better in the sack than a normal date." House said.

Cameron looked straight at him. "I wouldn't know."

"Ha! A likely story. I bet you went for a roll in the hay with him first chance you got."

"Not that it's any of your business but no I didn't." Cameron replied and was sure she saw relief flash across his face.

"Are you going out again?" Chase asked her.

Cameron turned to him in amusement. "You two are such girls." She said, indicating Foreman as well. "No, it was a one time thing. He's away filming for the next six months."

"Pity" Foreman mused. "I'd like to be able to tell people I work with Jay Phillips' girlfriend."

House had grown bored with the conversation.

"Foreman, aren't you due down in the clinic?" He asked.

Foreman glanced at his watch. "Yeah. So is Chase."

Cameron felt panic rush through her. She didn't want to be left alone with House. As intoxicating as she found him right now she'd probably end up having sex with him on the table if he asked.

"Since we have no patient I might head up to the Immunology department and see if they need a hand." She said in desperation to also escape.

House shook his head. "Nope. I need you to go through the mail. There's a lot and I don't have time."

Cameron gave him a dirty look. "Don't have time? What, are you too busy playing video games?" She asked sarcastically.

"Exactly. I'm glad to see you know what's what."

Chase and Foreman rolled their eyes at the laziness of their boss and left the conference room to start on their clinic hours.

House leaned on his cane and raked his eyes up and down her body with a leer.

"So you didn't sleep with him?" He said, something akin to happiness seeping into his voice.

"No I didn't. But I don't think that's really any of your business is it?" She replied.

He limped a few steps towards her. In a panic Cameron backed up but he kept coming. Cameron kept backing up until she felt the sink behind her. She watched House as he came closer. When he was close enough to her he leaned down and brushed his lips across her ear.

"Oh but I think it is my business." He breathed.

Cameron felt tingles up and down her entire body as she felt his lips and hot breath on her ear. Involuntarily she let out a small moan.

House leaned back and smirked at her before backing off and limping away. The distance between them allowed Cameron to think a bit more clearly and she was angry with him. Was he playing games with her now?

"Actually no I don't think it is your business. You still haven't given me a reason why it would be." She called after him.

House paused and turned around. "Was Saturday not enough of a reason for you?" He asked.

"That depends. Is it going to happen again?"

"Do you want it to?"

"House." She said in frustration. "You know I do. What I don't know is whether you do."

"I'm a man. Of course I want it to happen again." He replied.

Cameron nodded. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

House had started walking again and was almost at his office.

"Now get on with that mail. It's not going to answer itself you know." He called without turning around.

Mdmdmd

Not long before lunch Chase came quickly into the room followed closely by Foreman. House looked up when they entered and exaggeratedly looked at his watch.

"Both of you are rostered in the clinic for another hour and a half." He said to them.

"I've found us a patient. I got Foreman on the way." Chase replied heading to the whiteboard.

House followed behind and took the marker off him just before he started to write.

"Uh uh uh. What have I told you before? You don't have whiteboard privileges."

Chase rolled his eyes. "Fine. The symptoms are coughing up phlegm, tightness in the chest and a fever."

House had begun to write as Chase first started talking but now turned to look at him.

"That's it?" He threw the marker back down. "Bronchitis. Done. Solved. Another one to the brilliant Doctor House." House said.

Chase shook his head. "Not bronchitis. He was in here two weeks ago and the doctor diagnosed Bronchitis. He's been taking a bronchodilator since and it has made no difference."

House raised his eyebrows and the ducklings moved to take seats at the conference table. They could all see House's interest had been peaked. They officially had a new case.

"Chase, he's been admitted?" House asked.

"He will be as soon as you give the okay."

"Well here it is. Go and get him admitted then take a full medical history. Not that crappy medical history they get for the clinic. Cameron; go with him. Foreman; go back to the clinic until we've got the history." House commanded.

The three of them stood up to do what they had been told. As they were leaving Cuddy arrived.

"You have a patient?" She questioned House as she watched the three ducklings traipse out the door.

House nodded. "So no clinic duty for me today I'm afraid."

"Well you do have one clinic patient that can't wait." Cuddy looked behind her and saw that Chase, Cameron and Foreman had disappeared. "It looks like you have a few minutes."

"Your office or mine?" House asked with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

"Mine. I don't particularly like the idea of exposing myself to anyone who walks past your office."

House eyed the low cut top she was wearing. "Yet you have no trouble exposing the fun-bags all day long?" He shook his head in mock confusion. "Women."

Cuddy decided it was better not to get into a verbal battle with House; he was always going to win anyway. She left the conference room and headed back to her own office, satisfied to her the uneven gait of House limping behind her.


End file.
